The Hunter
by driveldrabble
Summary: As a hunter Bella has devoted years to fighting along side werewolves to curb the deadly threat posed by vampires but an encounter during one hunt turns her life on end. She learns she has another role to fulfil in a prophesied war that threatens to enslave all mankind and that there's a very fine line between love and hate.
1. Prologue

**Author's note:** I can't really believe I'm daring to do this so please be kind if you leave any reviews. Obviously all characters belong to SM I've just seriously messed about with them. I apologise in advance for my shocking grammar and punctuation skills (either too much or too little but hardly ever correct!)

The first half of the story is already written so I'll try to update regularly - probably every Sunday.

Oh and although it hasn't been written yet I'm a big fan of a good HEA it just might take a while to get there.

Rated M for later smut.

And the title is a bit of a work in progress if I come up with something better I'll change it.

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**Prologue**

My name is Bella Swan.

I come from a long proud line of men and women who have fought to maintain the fragile peace that hangs by a thin thread over our land. One that most people are blissfully and entirely unaware of, happy in their ignorance that a war is being fought right beneath their noses, not just on the quiet country backroads and remote mountain passes but on the very bustling city streets where they work and go about their mundane daily lives.

Since the fall of Volterra during the second war with the Carpathian old ones almost 60 years ago, the only thing that has stopped the world from falling into chaos and ruin at the hands of the murderous and now mainly lawless vampire population, are the small bands of fighters who have taken it upon themselves, either through choice or through birthright, to keep the blood thirsty animals at bay. These vigilantes and of course, the vampires natural predator, the werewolves are the only ones who stand in the way of the complete carnage that would ensue if the general public found out the truth.

For the most part vampires keep to themselves. So long as they are able to fulfil their needs, they are usually content to limit their interactions with humans to picking off random victims from the ever present buffet of the local populace. But if their existence became general knowledge, if they suddenly felt they were under threat from the world's armies then it could only lead to all out war. Vast armies of new-born vampires would be amassed for a war we could not hope to win. One that would surely result in the complete devastation of the civilised world as we know it and the subjugation of the human race, leaving us relegated to nothing more than a herd of cattle for their consumption.

Without the Volturi to enforce the laws they created that prohibited large rival covens, the vampire population has swollen in number over the last few decades and with them has come an increased number of werewolf packs across the country. Men and women shape-shifters who possess the natural ability to bring down what to almost all others is an unbeatable foe and destroy them. Watching a werewolf tear one of these blood sucking monstrosities limb from limb is a truly awe inspiring sight. There's something almost quite erotic about the display of raw, brutally primal power as these two beasts battle to the death. A sight that I admit has lead me once or twice to an unwise night of sex with the victorious shape shifter.

You'd be mistaken if you think it's a one sided fight though. The vampires can match the werewolves in speed and strength. And many good men and women have been lost in our fight to rid the world of these evil parasites who live off of mankind.

But werewolves have something on their side that vampires don't. Camaraderie. They live and die as a team. They would give their lives to save another member of their pack and they rarely leave an individual undefended to hunt alone. They have each others backs, and if one pack member does fall then another is there to take their place and avenge their death. Vampires don't share this same pack mentality, even those who live in covens. Vampires are selfish creatures by nature, who care only about themselves. The only exceptions are those who have found their mates, but even then the bond is not always strong enough to prevent one of the couple from fleeing to save their own skin leaving their lover to be torn apart by the wolves.

I've seen enough during my life to know that vampires are the worst kind monster, vile heartless creatures who prey on those weaker than themselves showing no sign of mercy what-so-ever for their victims. They don't care who gets hurt as long as they fulfil their need.

So I show the same lack of remorse each time I help to end one their miserable lives.

My name is Bella Swan and I am a vampire hunter.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

"He definitely came this way," Jake confirmed with a confident nod. "The leech's stench leads over there," he continued his nostrils flaring and lip curling in distaste as he looked towards the boarded up row of shops that were sign posted for demolition.

"Any others with him?" I asked.

"Nah," Jake shook his head. "Smells like he's on his own."

"Okay. Give me a few minutes head start and then follow me in and for god's sake keep your mind blank of any intelligible thought." Adding with a grin, "That shouldn't be too difficult for you."

Jake made an unamused face and flipped me off.

Although we usually hunted with other members of the pack, it wasn't completely unknown for just Jake and I to hunt alone if the target was a single vampire that was unlikely to pose us much of a threat. It was however practically unheard of to send me in first when it was just the two of us. I was used to acting as bait and a decoy, but in those cases we always had backup.

But tonight that just wasn't an option. The less bodies, or rather minds, tonight the better. The vampire we were hunting had a particular ability that made our unusual hunting arrangement a necessity. Jake had received a tip off either from one of the few vampires the pack let live in peace in exchange for regular information and a promise they'd only drink hospital blood bags, or he'd extracted the information by torturing one of the more recent vampires we'd hunted. Honestly I didn't really care how he'd come across the information. What did matter was that the informant had told us there was an active vampire by the name of Edward Masen, causing trouble in the area and drawing too much attention to himself.

We had looked into the number of disappearances and suspicious deaths that had occurred in the area over the past few months and come up with at least twenty deaths that seemed to fit the pattern of a vampire killing.

Whilst the victims weren't entirely drained of blood and had been mauled in an attempt to make it look like a wild animal attack, it wasn't enough to fool us and it wouldn't be long before the police became suspicious about the number of fatal animal attacks occurring in the urban area.

Most vampires still lived by the same strict code that had been enforced by the Volturi, careful never to expose their existence to humans. They ensured they covered their tracks and disposed of their victims bodies so they were never seen again, but this vampire was making no attempt to clean up after himself. He simply left the bodies dumped in the alleyways or disused buildings where he'd fed.

These weren't random killings though. This vamp seemed to target a definite type, favouring young to middle aged white males. Many of whom it became clear were well known to the police, with previous form for a range of misdemeanours including aggravated robbery, drug dealing and assault. The other thing his victims seemed to have in common, with the exception of a few cases, was that they all seemed to go relatively unmissed. Information we were able to hack from the police files showed there were no missing persons reports issued for the majority of the men despite some lying undiscovered for weeks.

I guess it was this leech's idea of keeping a low profile whilst maintaining a fairly active appetite. Most vampires only needed to feed every one to two weeks but this guy was going though two or three victims a week. The problem was the careless way he was disposing, or rather not disposing, of the bodies meant it was only a matter of time before people started asking difficult questions about what was really happening.

Since the pack had been trying to track him we'd made an attempt to tamper with the evidence he left behind. We hadn't been able to catch him but we had found his fresh kills. We had set fire to a couple of the disused buildings were they lay and made one body, that was too drained of blood to pass as an animal attack, _disappear_ all together.

But tonight we had him.

Our informant had called us and told us our subject was inside the building and I could feel it, we were going to catch him in the act tonight.

As I edged my way closer to the building, my hand on my axe, and prayed that he'd be too busy feeding to notice me until I was close enough. My role was to act as a distraction whilst Jake came around the back of the building but the success of the plan all depended on me being the exception to his particular talent.

According to the pack's informant this vampire had the ability to read minds. Not just other vampires but everyone, humans and werewolves included and it was this which had necessitated our small hunting partnership this evening. The less of us there were, the less risk of one of the hunting party letting thoughts slip and alerting him to our presence and allowing him to escape.

It turned out that as a Swan I had been blessed with some form of inherited immunity from the special powers some vampires possessed and, fortunately for me, luck on my side against all the ones I'd fought so far.

That little blond bitch we'd tracked last month had managed to bring the entire pack to they knees, writhing in pain without her having to lay a single finger on them. There was no way she could have known I'd be unaffected. I just laid there biding my time, faking injury until she was close enough to stab. I hadn't killed her but it was enough to cause her to lose focus and that was all the pack had needed. The guys took great delight in ripping her to shreds - slowly.

At the doorway to the building I took one last look over my shoulder to where Jake stood some yards down the street. I pointed to my head and then put my finger to my lips in a reminder for him to keep his thoughts quiet. Even from a distance I could tell he was rolling his eyes at me.

My attention was ripped from him by the blood curdling scream that came from inside the building seconds before a woman tore out of the door, barrelling past me as if she hadn't even seen me.

Shit! It took me a couple of deep breaths to steady my racing heart, by which time Jake had already reached her. She was screaming and sobbing unintelligibly whilst he tried to calm her. I quickly signalled to him to get that shit out of here, a hysterical woman was the last thing we needed right now.

She had seriously shocked the hell out of me. I hadn't expected to find a woman on the scene at all. This vampire had his type of that we were certain and young and female it certainly wasn't. If he fancied a change of flavour tonight why let her go? And if he wanted to play cat and mouse with her surely he'd have given chase by now unless of course he was already engaged in feeding.

I rushed into the building, giving up all previous plans to creep up on him there wasn't time for that anymore. I didn't have to go far to find him. There at the back of what looked like it might have been some kind of clothing store in a previous life, beside some broken and dismembered shop manikins knelt the vampire and before him lay the now dead body of a man. The vampire's back was to me and he made no move to turn about, but I could see his reflection in the cracked mirror that hung on the back wall. He was staring straight at me, a look of complete concentration on his face. I didn't bother to hide my smirk. He was trying to listen for my thoughts but from the irked look of dissatisfaction that now crossed his face in response to my smile, he had failed to hear any.

He stood slowly and turned around. It was only then that I realised, that at this point in our scheduled plan of attack, Jake should be bursting through the back door. I'd rushed into the building without giving him a chance to return from getting the woman to safety.

I clutched my axe in my hand, its thin leather strap crossed across my palm, ready to swing out towards his face and distract him from the dagger that was currently concealed within my jacket sleeve and which I planned to drive into his neck.

I saw him eye the axe in interest and perhaps a flicker of amusement. I knew he'd made the same mistake they all did, he'd underestimated me, but even so I would feel better if I knew I had Jake as back up.

I needed to stall him.

"You missed a bit," I said pointing to the corner of my mouth in a mirror image to where a spot of the victims blood still remained on his face.

"Thank you." He said with gracious politeness as I'd just complemented him on his tie, before he slowly licked it from his lip. For some unknown reason I found myself mimicking his action tracing the same part of my lip with my own tongue before I realised what I was doing. I felt my cheeks heat with shocked embarrassment, instantly hating myself for both involuntary actions. I'd never blushed in front of a vampire before.

Although his smile hardly graced his lips I could tell from his eyes he was laughing at me.

I gritted my teeth, I was going to look forward to seeing Jake rip this cocky blood sucker apart.

"And you let one escape." I pointed out coolly, hoping my tone sent the message that I wasn't afraid of him. "That was a bit careless wasn't it? But then you are sloppy aren't you? We've been cleaning up after you for weeks."

"Oh, that was you and your mutt was it?" He didn't sound as if he particularly cared, but his face was gravely serious when he continued. "It wasn't careless. I wanted the police to find them, I wanted them to know those men were dead. And I let her go, I was never interested in her."

"Just the guys that float your boat then?" I insinuated, wondering at the same time what the hell had happened to Jake. I wasn't sure how long I could continue to stall this guy. I hoped I could manage to take him on his own but that seemed fairly unlikely without some element of surprise. "Is it something sexual then? Do you only pick victims that turn you on?"

Even though his mouth didn't move except for a slight snarl of his lip, he still managed to emit a deep low growl that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. _For fucks sake Jake hurry up _I willed_._

"No!" He spat back at me, the first break in his otherwise smooth composure. "Those worthless maggots didn't deserve to live. You might consider them victims but believe me I showed them a lot more mercy than they did for any of their victims. And he," the vampire waved a dismissive hand in the direction of the corpse behind him, "met with a far swifter and painless death than the one he had planned for the woman he'd brought here tonight."

I thought about what we'd discovered about the victims and the kind of men they were. Nearly all of then had a previous record and none of them were exactly what you would call _good guys_.

"Are you trying to tell me that you're what, some sort of vampire vigilante? That you're cleaning up the streets one snack at a time?" I said shaking my head in insulted disbelief. Although really I wasn't sure why he was even bothering to justify his actions to me. From experience I knew vampires didn't care enough to come up with a cover story for what they did, it was just who they were, we were nothing more than their food source. It was like me trying to justify why I eat meat to my burger before I ate it.

I saw his lip twitch as if suppressing a smile. "Not quite how I'd word it, no. But I know what they were planning, what they've done, and I know that the world is not a darker place for their deaths."

"But it's not your choice though is it? It's not up to you to decide who lives and who dies, you don't have that right."

"So you're saying I should have let him go through with his plans tonight? And how about the next girl or the next? Do you know how many times he's done this before?" Pausing as if he really expected me to hazard a guess, before continuing. "He's raped 16 women in the last 5 years, the last 5 of whom he murdered. He would have done it again tonight and then again and again after that. He was growing more confident, cocky about the fact that the police didn't even seem to suspect him. The frequency of this attacks would have increased. If _I_ hadn't stopped him, then who would have, huh? You and your dog? You weren't interested in saving her, only in killing me."

"Whatever?" I shrugged with fake bravado, concerned about the direction the conversation had just headed. "It sounds like bullshit to me, but you just tell yourself whatever it is you need to hear to make yourself feel better about the fact that you cut him down and ended his life with no more thought than draining a blood bag."

"Please." He sounded insulted. "If I just wanted to feed, I could find a more salubrious location and a fresher vintage than that," he added turning up his nose in disgust. "And if I really wanted to cleanse my palate of that cretin's alcohol saturated blood, I could have helped myself to something much more appetising by now."

He took a step towards me. I didn't turn away but my eyes darted to the corners of the room for any sign that Jake was about to burst in and save the day.

"Don't worry. He's on his way." The vampire said in his calm cool manner and for a moment I worried that he could read my thoughts after all. "Even if I couldn't hear his panting, I wouldn't be able to escape the stench of the sweaty dog running up the street."

And then the vampire was right in front of me, having moved at a lightening rate of speed too fast for my eyes to process. The shock of his sudden proximity made me gasp as he inhaled deeply his nose just skimming my throat.

The second I tried to move my hands to defend myself he had my wrists tightly bound in his own hands, pinning them to my sides.

"Mmm," he murmured, "so much sweeter. Believe me I would prefer to savour this particular bouquet any day." The cold breath of his words against my neck made my skin pebble right down to the base of my spine and the muscles between my thighs involuntarily clench.

"But don't worry," he said pulling away from my neck to look me in the eye, adding with a disarmingly sexy smile, "you're perfectly safe with me."

He leant in again and I felt myself reflexively leaning toward him at the same time. Drawn toward his lips by his words and the smile that still played on them.

And then he was gone.

I stumbled forward still moving toward the now empty space where he had stood, my balance thrown off kilter by the sudden release of my wrists.

"Are you all right?"

I turned as Jake burst into the shop from the back entrance.

"Yeah… yeah of course." I mumbled, taking a moment to clear my thoughts enough to speak normally. "The leech got away though."

I saw Jake's nostrils flare and he gave me curious, questioning look. Straight away I knew that his damn unnaturally keen sense of smell had noticed it.

There in the room along with the aroma of the still warm corpse, the blood and the stink of vampire that werewolves found so repulsive, he would also undoubtedly pick up the unmistakable scent of my arousal.

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**Authors note:**

Oops got be embarrassing for a vampire hunter to get turned on by the vampire she's supposed to be killing. Damn pesky werewolf Bella would have got away with it otherwise!

And yeah I know an ordinary axe wouldn't be much use to Bella, but then its no ordinary axe! More about that next time.

Oh and I suppose I really ought to put in a warning that although there will be some canon moments thrown in here and there its safer to just presume that everyone is completely out of character.

I'll update next Sunday - until then let me know what you think please leave a review!


	3. Chapter Two

I woke up cold.

Cracking open an eye I could see the reason. The sheets were bunched up at the bottom of the bed about my feet, Jake had obviously kicked them off in the night when he'd got too hot. Damn werewolves and their internal central heating.

The culprit responsible for my rude awakening was now sprawled across my bed at an angle with his back to me, one arm thrown up over his face as he slept, whilst I was relegated to the very edge of the bed curled up in a fetal position. I never had been much of a hugger. Just because I screwed a guy, it didn't mean I wanted to end up cuddled up in his sweaty armpit for the rest of the night.

At the thought of last night I was no longer cold as the heat of my shame and guilt flooded over me.

I didn't even consider pulling the covers back up, instead I hastily slipped silently out of bed cautious not to wake Jake.

I wasn't ready for the awkward conversation that was bound to happen at some point today. I knew last night meant very different things to the two of us, no matter how much male bravado Jake was capable of displaying to downplay it.

I had only slept with Jake once before but I knew that he had been hoping for a repeat performance ever since. He liked me. He had made that abundantly clear the last time. Even though it had been years ago, and he'd quickly dismissed the emotional disclosure of his feelings on the copious amount of alcohol we'd had to drink, I clearly remembered the look of hurt disappointment on his face when I'd explained I wasn't looking for a boyfriend or a relationship of any kind.

And I know he's still interested. I've seen the way he looks at me when he thinks no one is watching. I've noticed the way he tries to pretend it doesn't bother him when I hook up with other men. And, even though he thinks I don't know about it, I know all about the fight that he and Sam got into after I spent the night in Sam's bed.

But what am I supposed to do? It's not like the reason I fuck other men is to hurt him, but then it doesn't mean I care enough to stop either. I've reasoned that it's not my problem if he gets upset. Jake's a big boy he'll get over me eventually.

But deep down I know I'm just a selfish shit.

I didn't care last night that I was using him or that I knew he'd end up getting hurt. AlI I cared about was myself.

I was glad that the house we share with other guys from the pack was empty when we got back from the hunt last night. I made no attempt to correct Jake's assumption, that my desire was driven by the rush of the hunt and my close call with the vampire last night.

God knows Jake's aware of what turns me on. Its always been the same since my first hunt - the thrill that starts to building with the anticipation of the chase, the spike of adrenaline that hits me as the pursuit comes to a head in a fight and the high I get from witnessing the hunt reach its climax with the kill - its like a twisted foreplay for me.

Jake's used to seeing me hit some bar after a hunt, watching me hook up for a quick fuck in a bathroom stall or the alley out back. Last night was no different, except last night it was Jake that got lucky instead of some nameless guy.

Only I know it wasn't the hunt that had me so worked up last night.

The reason I sought out the heat of Jake's body, that I clung to him with tooth and nail, was that I wanted him to drive out the chill I could still feel over every part of my skin. As if that vampire's cool breath and smooth words were still pricking out tingling goosebumps across my flesh.

The reason I begged Jake to keep my wrists held high above my head, his hands gripping me hard enough to leave bruises, was so that I could erase the way the manacles of strong cold fingers had felt latched about my wrists.

I chose Jake not despite the fact that I know from experience that he's too big to fit me pleasurably, but because of that very reason. I wanted to feel stretched and filled to the point of discomfort. And when I screamed for him to fuck me as hard as he could, it was because I wanted him to make it impossible for me to think or feel anything other than that moment.

Only now I feel worse than I did last night. Not only do I still feel unfathomably unsettled after my encounter with that vampire but now I feel like a mega bitch with a supersized side order of guilt for using Jake the way I did.

I quickly grabbed my running gear from the same dirty heap on the floor where I'd discarded it after my last run. It didn't smell the freshest but hey I was only going to get sweaty and gross in it again anyway so what did it matter.

Closing the bedroom door I quickly dressed in the hall way.

As I straightened up, my head emerging from my hoody I caught Embry one of the younger pack members standing in his doorway watching me.

"Nice Swan." He smirked. "Thanks for that. I'll be sure to let all the guys know its worth getting stuck with the early morning patrol just for the floor show."

"Fuck off Embry." I quickly tied the laces on my running shoes before stalking off to the front door without looking back at him.

"And," Embry called after me, "if you really want to know what its like to have a real man then you know where to find me. My door's always open for you Swan. I promise you wouldn't be complaining that _I_ wasn't hard enough."

Real man? Don't make me laugh! Jake could chew Embry up and spit him out like a chew toy. But I couldn't be bothered to stop and argue the point, that was Jake's battle not mine, besides there was no way I was giving Embry the satisfaction of seeing the burn of humiliation on my cheeks. I had honestly thought everyone was out when we'd returned last night and I really don't want to think about what he'd heard.

I hit the pavement running without a second glance back at the house.

I run most days for strength and fitness but today I was running to punish myself for all the fucked up feelings going round in my head.

I kept pushing myself, spurred on by my reluctance to face the awkwardness that was most certainly waiting for me when I returned to the house. But I was only a mile into my run and I already felt like throwing in the towel. My calf kept cramping and in my haste to get out the door I'd forgotten to bring any water with me and my mouth was dryer than a camel's arsehole in the Sahara.

I wasn't used to running on my own. I usually ran with Jake, even though it was hardly a tough workout for him, I had to practically sprint to keep up with him whilst he barely broke a sweat. But he'd always been there, right from the start, to help with my training. I also I knew it was more than just a case of him keeping me motivated. Jake kept me company as my running and sparring partner because he was my friend. He was my hunting partner. Someone I could trust.

It was Jake who insisted I was told the truth about my father and everything about this life, whilst everyone else was happy to lie to my face.

My father, Charlie, and I weren't close. My parents' marriage hadn't survived long and I was only a toddler when they got divorced. I always believed that my parents were just too different in personality for them to be compatible long term.

I guess I blamed my mother, she's always been a little what people would call flighty, some might even call her eccentric, personally I've always envied her for her undiminishable childlike enthusiasm for life.

Turns out she didn't just run off because she was bored with married life. Marriage to a hunter wasn't exactly conducive to a steady happy married life. Newly wedded brides aren't supposed to sit up all night wondering whether this was the night their husband wasn't going to make it home alive.

She confessed to me, after I found out the truth, that the last straw was when my parents house was attacked by an angry handful of vampires, straggler survivors from a coven that my father had helped to take out.

That was the point that she knew she had to get out if not for herself but for me. Although she was aware Charlie was a hunter before their wedding, she hadn't realised he would be more married to the hunter life than he ever would be to her. She begged him to give it up,move away with us and start a fresh someplace new. But he refused. Hunting was in his blood he'd told her, it was his birthright. He could never walk away, it wasn't a job, it was his life.

For a while I felt guilty that my mom had left the man she loved, her friends and home to take me right across the other side of the country to keep me safe. And in the end it made no difference, for all her sacrifices I ended up falling right into the life and becoming a hunter anyway.

Renee never came back. Charlie would come visit with us for a week or two every year, but it was always a bit awkward. We were just two people who knew they were supposed to have an emotional bond because of are relationship but who really had nothing in common and found it difficult to pretend we felt any particular kind of attachment to each other. I think Charlie always felt quite relieved when the holiday was over and it was time for him to go home. I know I did. In a way I feel I know him better now than I did when he was alive.

When he died I came back for the funeral. The story was that he had been killed whilst on a fishing trip. A mountain lion had got into the camp at night and killed Charlie and left his best friend and fishing buddy, Billy Black, with injuries that would confine him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

But something about the whole thing had just felt off. Whilst admittedly I didn't know much about mountain lions, the simultaneous attack on my father and Billy by a solitary cat didn't seem to add up. But more than that I had a feeling that there was something else's going on, something that no one was telling me.

The local funeral company was owned and run by a friend of the Black's, I later found out they were a family member of one of the pack. Despite my persistent requests they wouldn't let me view Charlie's body. I couldn't understand it, I hadn't seen my dad for over a year and all I wanted was a chance to say goodbye. I understood that they advised not having an open casket considering the lion attack, but as his next of kin I should have had the right to see my father one last time.

It all came to head in a confrontation with Billy, where I basically blew up and started throwing around allegations of foul play, insinuating that Billy had had something to do with my father's death or knew who did. I threatened to bring the matter to the police's attention and get them to investigate why no one would open the casket.

Billy called my buff, basically told me to go ahead. It was Jake who convinced Billy, the tribal leaders and the rest of the pack to tell me the truth. His argument was that they might need me if I had inherited the same ability to block vampire's special abilities that my father had possessed. But Jake confessed to me later that it just hadn't felt right keeping the secret from me, seeing me hurting because I couldn't say a proper farewell to my father saddened him.

Jake and Billy turned up at my father's house where I was staying with a box full of Charlie's personal belongings and a whole load of crazy stories.

I thought Billy was insane when he started explaining about werewolves and vampires, and my father's double life as a hunter. All those weekends he'd spent away fishing with Billy, they'd been working with the pack tracking and killing vampires. I didn't believe him until Jake transformed into a werewolf right there in my father's kitchen.

"What's in this box is your real inheritance," Billy had explained to me once I'd managed to stop freaking out. Inside was my father's beaten up old leather hunting jacket, a dog eared journal that contained all his hand written notes about the vampires the pack had encountered, their habits, special abilities, and the best ways to track and kill them.

The box also contained his weapons.

I'd never seen anything like them. The first was a long thin dagger of sorts, shaped from one solid piece of bone with a point so sharp you barely had to touch it for it to draw blood and which I later discovered, no matter what you did to it, never became blunt. The other weapon, also made of bone, was short and flat in shape a bit like a cross between an axe and a club. Along one side were what, at first sight, could have been mistaken as jagged points but which on closer inspection were actually teeth. The weapon had been shaped from a jaw bone with the teeth still inlaid.

Although I didn't see it when they were first shown to me, I was still in a state of shock after all, I later came to appreciate the beautiful craftsmanship of both weapons. The bone had been smoothed and worked to a beautiful finish almost giving it the appearance of polished stone or marble.

Billy explained that the stories of his tribe told how a number of weapons were crafted and gifted to a small group of strong warriors, outsiders who did not possess the ability to shapeshift into the mighty wolves like the tribe's men. The weapons were created from the exhumed bones of the first wolf, the first tribesman with the ability to transform. The bones being so ancient they had petrified in the ground, so that they had had become more like stone that bone. These fossilised bones were as a result even stronger than those of a living werewolf. They could cut through vampire's skin as it were as susceptible as a human's.

"Your father defended himself many times with these weapons," Billy told me. "They belonged to his father and grandfather and before them many generations of hunters. They have helped to kill hundreds of vampires over the centuries and now we can show you how to fight with them. Used correctly and with enough force this will take a vampire's head clean off his shoulders. "

He picked up the flat jaw bone weapon. Holding it by its handle in the palm of his hand as if weighing it before taking hold of the thin leather strap that was threaded through the hole at the end. I watched as he began to swing it skilfully about his head and then torso. The axe made a noise as it cut through the air almost as if it we're singing to me.

I was mesmerised by the masterfully ease in which he wielded the axe, but when his display came to an end and he offered it to me in his upturned hand I just stared at him.

"Are you mad?" I finally blurted. "I can't do that! There is absolutely no way, not a frickin' chance, that I am ever EVER going to be a vampire hunter!

But of course I was wrong. They took me along on an easy hunt, like a rooky cop on his first stake out hiding in the back of the cop car. I was utterly unprepared for my physical reaction, the nervous exhilaration I felt building to a release of excitement of an intensity I had never felt before was addictive. I knew immediately that I couldn't walk away from the life. I started strength, fitness and weapon training the very next day.

It was Jake that was there from the beginning, the one who believed I should know the truth, who believed I had what it took to be a hunter, even when other members of the pack scoffed at my short stature and slim build. He was there every day to help me train and one of the first to congratulate me when on my first real hunt I easily defended myself by severing both the arms of my attacker.

Without Jake's help I would not have become the proficient and skilled fighter that I am today. He has been a good and loyal friend. And friends don't run out on or use each other.

I stopped on the pavement, bending over to catch my breath. I needed to go back and talk to Jake and put things right, although there was no way in hell I was going to tell him about my true motivation for sleeping with him last night.

Straightening up I wiped the sweat from my forehead before pulling back the arms of my hoody to cool my over hot arms.

At that very second I heard the unmistakeable growl of a vampire ready to attack.

* * *

**Authors Notes:**

I kind of imagine Bella's axe looking a bit like a New Zealand Maori weapon called a Mere or Patu which is kind of like a flat short bladed axe/club type thing. I'll put a link on my profile to a youtube video of a NZ guy doing a demonstration with one. Its only short and small but I reckon it would really really hurt if you got hit in the head with it. Bella's is supposed to be super sharp and made of werewolf bone and teeth so hers would slice through vampire skin as well.

Hope you didn't find this chapter too slow moving but there was some important background information that I needed to slip in.

I was going to update next Sunday but this upcoming weekend looks like it might be a busy one so I thought I'd do it now seeing as the chapter was already written. The next chapter is an Edward POV. And if I get a chance I might update again at the weekend, but I'm not sure if there's anyone out there that's interested? Anyone reading? Please let me know, just a teeny weeny little review, just one word would make me happy (as long as its a nice word!). Let me know what you think of it so far and I'll answer any questions.

Go on you know you want to, promise I won't bite!

p.s. Thanks to those of you who favourited/followed the story.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

Edward POV

Even in a city of this size it wasn't difficult to find her.

I merely returned to where I had last seen her, even though it went against all my better judgement to return to the scene of one of my crimes. I wasn't surprised after what she had said last night to discover that someone had 'cleaned up' after me. The man's body had gone and there was no obvious evidence that any of us had been there at all.

But I could still smell the werewolf and I was able to follow his pungent trail all the way to this run down house in its low income suburb.

From the concentrated stench coming from the house it was clear there was more than one dog living there. My instincts were telling me to avoid the source of the stink at all costs but I could also smell her and that kept me from leaving.

I settled myself in a huddle of trees a safe distance downwind from the house and waited.

I could hear movement and thoughts coming from one of the mutts as he woke. There was nothing particularly interesting about his internal monologue, just grumbling about being stuck with the short straw of an early morning patrol around the city checking for trouble and how unfair it was that the rest of the house was still asleep.

The sensible thing to do would be to leave. The last thing I needed was to be caught spying outside a house full of werewolves. One I could easily manage but a whole pack? I was good but not that good. It would certainly be an interesting way to test whether I was as fast as I thought I was. I like to think I could at least out run a mangy pack of dogs even if I couldn't fight them all.

The wolf's next thought cut through my deliberation, his internal voice was loud and clear in my mind as I got an eyeful of exactly what he was seeing.

It was her. Bella he called her. _Beautiful_. The perverted peeping tom was watching her getting dressed. I wasn't sure whether his lewd thoughts made me more mad or aroused but the images of her dressing that played in his head had me sporting more wood in my pants than the branch I was currently perched on, and that made me just as much of a dog as he was.

His thoughts turned to last night, he was summing up that Bella's behaviour had not been out of character for her, he was only surprised that it was Jake she'd ended up in bed with. He found it both incredibly sexy and, although he'd never admit it, slightly terrifying that Bella was turned on by hunting and that witnessing the primal fight to the death between dog and vampire left her with a sexual appetite that she sated by picking up random men in bars. I'd been aware of her state of arousal last night, but in my arrogance I'd presumed it was I who caused it. I should have known better than to think she would be attracted to one of my kind.

The filthy dog's thoughts moved on, recalling how he'd jerked off to the sounds of her with the other mutt last night. I didn't realise how hard I was gripping the tree trunk until I felt its hardwood turn to pulp beneath my fingers. I wanted to go in there and rip his vile head off but even at my most hot headed I'm not so reckless as to barge in and wake a house full of sleeping dogs.

Luckily Bella appeared at the door to distract me, breaking into an instant sprint as she headed down the street. She was pretty fast for a human. I followed her silently in the tree line on the other side of the street, moving easily from branch to branch without alerting her to my presence.

The smell of her flesh and blood was easily carried to me on the breeze but it wasn't like last night. It had been tainted. The stench of the disgusting dog was all over her, mixed together with her own scent, the aroma of their sex still strong on her.

The idea of her with him repulsed me.

I thought of the other dog's memory moments ago, how he'd heard her demands the night before, wanting it harder, deeper. If that was what she wanted she should try sex with a vampire.

I froze in mid movement, poised to launch into the neighbouring tree, disturbed by where my train of thought had just arrived. I didn't…I couldn't have sex with humans. The mere thought of being with her both appalled and yet excited me. It simply wasn't a possibility. I could kill her. I shook my head letting reality catch up with my run away thoughts. The human in question hated me so sitting here worrying about the unlikely eventuality of us having sex was utterly pointless, besides Alice would literally have my head if I killed this particular human.

I had turned my mobile off last night as soon as I had decided to follow my victim, knowing that Alice would see my decision and try to stop me.

She disapproved of my preferred diet, as did the rest of my family. They chose to live on a diet of animal blood, one that I had also followed for many decades until I'd quite spectacularly fallen off the wagon. Unable or unwilling to go back to my previous way of life, (the jury was still out in my family's opinion as to the reason for my refusal) I had decided that for the time being it was more prudent to live alone.

I wish I could say my choice had been a purely altruistic one, returning to the house after a kill had after all been making it harder for Emmet to abstain, but the truth was I was a much more selfish creature than that. I simply couldn't bear the look of disappointment in my maker, and to all extents and purposes my father, Carlisle's eyes whenever he looked at me.

I had been surprised to find Tanya waiting for me when I returned to my apartment last night. She was sat on the counter in my spotless unused kitchen. I wasn't in the mood for company and had rather ungraciously ignored her. Although I could feel her eyes on me as I went about my usual routine, taking off my jacket and hanging up my keys, I did so without extend the courtesy of acknowledging her. I also heard her growing impatience, she didn't appreciate my lack of interest.

"Your phone has been ringing off the hook since I got here." She stated sharply, annoyed at having to back down and start the conversation when it became obvious I wasn't going to do so. A sideways glance at the blinking light on the answer machine confirmed her story.

"Alice sounds even more frenetic than usual, after listening to her twelfth message I get the impression she really wants to talk to you."

"I'll call her later," I lied. Although I had no intention of doing so, she had managed to pique my interest somewhat. Even for Alice, this persistent behaviour was extreme. "What are you doing here Tanya?" I asked changing the subject.

"Irina and Kate went home today, but I wanted to swing by to give you a_ proper goodbye_ before I left." Giving her words a seductive overtone even though a slip in her thoughts revealed she didn't know why she was bothering considering my mood.

Tanya and her sisters were old friends who shared the same voluntary dietary restrictions as the rest of my family and from time to time they would pay us a visit. I had spent time living with them in Denali on several occasions over the decades. Whilst I had enjoyed intimate relationships with each of the sisters at various times, and at the same time on occasion, Tanya and I had always had a particular understanding.

Whilst I wasn't really in the mood for dealing with Tanya at the same time I felt a strange unsettling undercurrent as if I had something to prove. Not to her but to myself. I'd been trying to shake the disconcerting feeling that had been troubling me since I'd turned and found the hunter watching me kneeling above my kill.

All of Alice's heated diatribes about my "misguided choices," that I was putting the whole family at risk, wasting time when there was a far greater danger coming than a few human deadbeats, had not managed to make as much of an impression on me as this human did with her one scathing appraisal of me.

She hated me. I would expect no more from a hunter who ran with a wolf pack. What I couldn't fathom was why it should bother me so much. She had been quick to condemn me and I hated the fact that her judgement had been correct. She saw straight through the alluringly attractive exterior to the ugly truth at my core. Seeing me for exactly what I was, an unholy abomination, a cold hearted murderer excusing the fulfilment of my bloodlust by targeting those who themselves targeted the weak and vulnerable. She was right it didn't matter who or why I killed, the fact still remained, I was a murderer..

Self-loathing was something I'd given up on a long time ago, life was far too long for all that tiresome self-depreciation and condemnation, yet this insignificant human had me doubting myself.

Perhaps if she'd seen the sickening scenes I had, she wouldn't be so quick to condemn. Whatever kind of demon it is that I am, I am only half the monster that the depraved animals I execute are. I still believe that the swift death I grant my victims is too good, I should make them suffer more. Men who force themselves upon and abuse women in anyway deserve to pay for what they have done.

I'd had the same argument with my family countless times defending what I was doing and in the end it made no difference, I continued with or without their approval, I couldn't explain why the desire to convince her I was morally justified held such importance.

Tanya's presence in my apartment offer me a way to shake off the ridiculous hold that the human girl's opinion had on my state of mind and prove it meant nothing to me. Whilst it wasn't exactly gentlemanly behaviour to use a lady in such as way, Tanya had never exactly behaved like a lady.

Coming to stand between her legs, I let Tanya reel me in. She captured my mouth greedily and I knew it wasn't just me that caused her ragged breaths of pleasure. She could taste the whisper of the murderer's blood that still lingered on my tongue and she sought it out hungrily. My hands firm on her hips I dragged her closer to me, rocking my hardness against her needy centre. My lips worked their way to her neck, but something wasn't right. I ground against her harder, but even as I felt her fingers begin to make quick work of the buttons of my shirt, my hands and mouth were beginning to lose some of their urgency.

I realised what the problem was at the same time I became aware of Alice outside, shouting in my head.

With a frustrated growl I began to pull away from Tanya.

'What's the matter?" She muttered still attempting to unbutton the rest of my shirt.

"Alice is outside. I need to go and talk to her."

"Are you serious?" she frowned at me incredulously.

I didn't answer instead stepping away and quickly refastening my shirt.

"You're leaving me _now_to go and chat with your sister?" Her voice reflecting her growing indignation. When I didn't respond she continued with greater annoyance. "Do you really expect me to sit here and wait until you've finished your little family get together?"

"No Tanya, I have no intention of asking you to do that." I dismissed with the smooth tone of bored nonchalance I'd cultivated over the years, not caring that it would aggregate her even further.

Just before I closed the apartment door behind me I heard her scream. "You can be a real arsehole Edward, do you know that?"

Alice stood waiting for me with her arms crossed making a show of tapping her foot impatiently.

"To what do I owe the house call sister dear?"

"Cut the crap Edward." She scowled. "You know you left me with no choice since you've been avoiding my calls all evening."

"Let's get this over with then," I sighed. "You're all so disappointed with the choices I've made, it would be better for everyone if I toed the line and joined the fold again. You can't believe how selfish I am, how I could do this to Carlilse, to Esme, blah blah blah." I listed with disinterest. "Tell me, did I miss anything this time?"

"Tanya was right you are an asshole."

"Arsehole."

"What?"

"She actually called me an arsehole not an asshole."

"Whatever Edward, you're purposefully being one. A massive pedantic arsehole," Alice hissed angrily.

I shrugged, this wasn't exactly news to me.

"And not everything is about you Edward. This is about her."

"Tanya?"

"What? No! Of course not. The human. I've seen it Edward. She's important."

Alice's earlier vision played out in her head for me. It was her. The hunter. Standing side by side with us on the battlefield. She stood proud and unafraid in the face of the approaching army. Her hair hung lush and full about her shoulders, framing her flawless alabaster complexion, a steadfast look in her scarlet eyes as she took my hand.

"We need her Edward. I know she's the key, I'm not sure how yet but I know I need your help."

"No thank you. You can leave me out of your scheming and plans this time Alice. If you want to add her to your collection then you go get her yourself and good luck to you, you're going to need it. In fact you know what, and I can't even believe I'm saying this, but I think for once I'm going to have to bet against you. That girl hates our kind she is never willingly going to stand with us."

"It's not as simple as that Edward. You know I can't ignore the vision and neither can you. The war is coming whether we like it or not and when it does we're going to need her on our side. Just promise me she wont get hurt. I mean it Edward," she asserted grabbing my arm to stop me as I turned away, "she's important."

"All right I promise," I acquiesced with a huff, did she really think I was so out of control that I posed a danger to the girl. Brushing Alice off I strode away choosing not to return to my apartment, even though I could hear it was now empty, instead heading down to the water to look out over the bay. Watching the fragmented moonlight on the ocean and enjoying the blissful solitude always offered me a calm respite after a long day of attempting to block out others' busy minds.

But I couldn't rid myself of the images Alice had shared with me. And despite my protests that I wasn't prepared to help Alice collect her latest pawn in the prophetic war of her visions, when I left the bay at dawn I sought Bella out and now here I was only hours later hiding out in the trees like a her own personal stalker.

Even if Alice had not tracked me down last night I suspect I would have still found my way here this morning. Bella was the reason I'd pulled away from Tanya last night. The reason it had felt wrong, as if something were incomplete. As I'd kissed the cool line of Tanya's neck I had become aware that I was comparing her to the last person that my lips had brushed against that evening. It was more than just the heat of the heightened pulse beating beneath the fragile shell of delicate skin that was missing, what I craved the most was the unique scent of her blood mixed with the heady aroma of her arousal.

I had been horrified at my realisation and Alice's interruption could not have come at a better time.

I was broken from my thoughts and progress through the trees as Bella paused at the corner of the block. I watched her take a look about her as if suddenly realising her location. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her top, before pushing both sleeves up her arms.

Even from a distance I could clearly see the bruises on her wrists. I felt a sickening twist of guilt in my stomach remembering how I'd restrained her, but it only lasted a moment before my eyes homed in on the minute details of the bruise. On the inside of her wrist, just above the bone, fresh spots bloomed on her skin. They matched exactly with the perpetrator's fingers where his grip had dug into her flesh. Fingers that were too thick and fat to match my own.

There was only one other explanation. That fucking dog had hurt her last night.

I let out an uncensored growl of fury.

I would kill him.

* * *

_**So what do you think should I kill poor old Jake off already or let him live?**_

_**Please let me know there's someone out there reading I might even post the next chapter before the weekend if I think there's someone out there actually following this. Please I'm not above begging, I'm tired and feeling a little needy this evening so I could do with a good hug via the magic of a fanfic review.**_

_**p.s. thank you to everyone who favourited/followed the story so far.**_


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

My head snaps instantly in the direction of the trees, my senses put on high alert by the unmistakeable growl of a vampire ready to attack.

It makes sense now, that weird unsettled feeling I've had since I left the house. I'd mistaken it for anxious guilt over facing Jake but it was more than that. I was being followed.

If only I hadn't been so caught up in my own internal angst I might have paid more attention to where I was going. I've run myself into a fairly deserted area. What had been a rundown suburb is now going through some major redevelopment. Across the road, where the trees line the sidewalk the buildings have already been pulled down and the site is now a wasteland waiting for building work to begin. My side of the street is still in the stage before demolition, with abandoned boarded up buildings. There is no one else in sight. I can't remember the last time I noticed a car pass me and there isn't likely to be either in this part of the city so early on a Sunday morning.

I need to get into a less deserted area and quick. There's a side street that turns off just ahead and I'm pretty sure it will lead me to a much busier road, then I can just loop back toward home or find a pay phone and call the house for help.

I jog on casually not wishing to alert my stalker that I'm aware of their presence. As soon as I take the turning I can see it is a mistake. The street is a lot narrower than I had realised, just wide enough for one way traffic, with boarded up disused buildings looming tall on either side me. I've just willingly led myself into the perfect location for an attack.

I spin on the spot ready to sprint back the way I've come, but it is already too late. As I turn I come face to face with the vampire.

"Well, just look what I've found," he smirks with a delighted quirk of his eyebrows. "If it isn't the wolves' little bitch."

_Fuck_. I've never seen him before but he clearly knows who I am.

"Hmm," he muses stroking his chin in an exaggerated manner as if deep in thought. "Here was I just grateful that an early morning snack had delivered herself right to my front door, but now that I know who you are I think we'll have a little fun first."

My hand instinctively reaches to where my axe always sits, strapped to my hip during a hunt, but of course it isn't there. I never strapped it on this morning.

"I wonder what the wolves will think when they find you?" He reaches out to caress my cheek with his dirty fingers. He is without a doubt the ugliest vampire I have ever seen. Vampires are by nature beautiful, all of their features refined and improved in death to make them the most attractive version of themselves they can be. The fact that this one is unremarkable to the point of being plain, means he must have been pig-ugly in his first life.

I jerk my face away in disgust, but he continues to circle me undeterred. "Do you think they'll howl in pain for their loss." He taunts turning his face up the sky to bay like a wolf.

"They'll know it was you," I spit defiantly. "They'll be able to pick up your scent."

"Good!" he snaps coming to a standstill, his face right up in mine. "I want them to know it was me. They killed my entire coven, every last one without mercy. And you were there weren't you, you little bitch? I recognise the scent."

I know who he is now or at least I know what he is talking about. Last month the pack and I had taken out a coven based in a rural area not far outside the city line. Whilst it was a small group of six vampires committing only sporadic attacks spread out across the region, the pack had agreed unanimously that they couldn't allow a coven to operate so close to their territory, they needed to send a warning to other vampires.

"I'm going to make you pay for what you did," the ugly leech threatens.

One minute he's staring at me in the middle of the street, a look of violent hatred in his red eyes and the next I'm slammed against the wall so hard it makes my vision go black.

My senses were jolted back to life by the searing shots of pain that race through my hand as he breaks each of my fingers in rapid succession with five sickening cracks.

I scream out loud before my stomach lurches at the sudden motion of being flung aside.

With unfocused eyes and ringing in my ears I roll onto my side wondering why the next attack hasn't come yet.

From my prone position, cheek squashed against the pavement, I can see the blurred rapid movements before me. There are two vampires fighting but it is too fast for me to make out any real details. Until the dance comes to an abrupt stop.

My attacker is on his knees, one arm twisted high above his head in an unnatural position, his other arm missing altogether presumably torn off during the fight. His opponent holds him by his remaining arm and a vicelike lock around his neck just beneath his jaw.

Then with a kick to the centre of my attacker's back he manages, in one swift move, to remove both the arm and the head of the defeated vampire.

Then they are both gone.

I roll on to my stomach and then all fours, gritting my teeth to suppress my cry from the pain shooting through my broken hand. I dry retch a couple of times before managing to push myself up to standing.

By the time I straighten up my rescuer is back.

"You!?" It's the mind reader from last night, Edward Masen. "What are you doing here? Are you following me?" It seemed an unlikely coincident that he just happened to be passing.

"You know most people would say thank you to someone who had just saved their life." He says and gives me that same dazzling smile he did last night. Again it manages to send my mind blank. I might be immune to his mind reading, but this is clearly some other ability he has that I am most certainly susceptible to. He has my head reeling and damn it if he hasn't managed to make me feel weak in the knees just from a smile.

Then my knees gave way altogether. Okay so I'm not swooning from his smile but more likely from concussion.

His arms catch me before I hit the ground and gently lower me to sit on the pavement, where he kneels before me. He hasn't let go of me and I'm aware his hands are probably the only things keeping me upright at this moment.

"Are you all right?" he asks with surprisingly genuine looking concern. "Shit," he curses with an angry growl that makes me flinch. "I should never have left you. I just… I had to get away before I let my anger get the better of me and I killed that dog."

I scrunch my face up in confusion. "Dog? What dog? I thought it was a vampire. Shit I must have banged my head harder than I thought. I …" I beginning to ramble and I'm glad when he cuts me off.

"Your head?" I see his eyes darken as he reaches out to touch the back of my head causing me to take a sharp intake of breath at the contact.

When he draws back his hand it's coated in my blood. He turns his hand palm up to look at it, seemingly mesmerised by his own movements as he slowly runs this thumb across the pads of his slick red fingers in a repeated hypnotic fashion .

I watch with fascination as he raises his hand to his mouth, taking a long languid lick of his pointer finger. He closes his eyes with a gratified hum of satisfaction, before taking each one of his fingers into his mouth in turn to suck them clean of my blood. Each finger punctuated with a groan of pure ecstasy. Then his tongue skilfully cleans every last drop from his palm in drawn out considered strokes.

Shit! I know it's wrong to think it _but damn it if that isn't one of the hottest things I__'__ve ever seen_. Somewhere in my raddled mind I hope I still have enough sense left that I haven't just said that out loud, just before everything goes black.

* * *

**So Edward saved her, he can't be all bad then huh? **

**But oops it appears Bella tastes really good too so what's a boy gonna do?**

**If there's anyone out there feel free to leave a review!**


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

I open my eyes to the glare of a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling above me, the intense throbbing pain that shoots through my head as I screw my eyes shut in response instantly reminding me of my injury and exactly how I obtained it.

Shit the vampire!

I try to sit but when I do I'm alerted to the ropes about my wrists tying me to the bed. I tug at each arm and then my legs with increasingly panicked force but they don't give an inch.

Unable to sit I lift my head from the bed and gasp at the sight of me. I am no longer wearing my hooded top but the thin running vest I was wearing beneath it is now coated in blood.

"Ah, good you're awake. I trust you feel better after your rest." Edward Masen appears looming tall at the foot of the bed. He sports a genial smile and I figure he's aiming for the offhand sarcasm he's displayed before but something about his whole manner seems to miss the mark this time. He shifts awkwardly under my glare and if I didn't know better I would say he looks nervous. He, the vampire, standing looking at the helpless human bound to the bed is nervous? Something doesn't fit. Wait the blood! I am still human aren't I?

"What…what have you done to me? Have you…did you change me?" I realise the ridiculousness of my question as soon as the words leave my mouth.

He laughs but again his humour seems to fall flat, his smile never reaching his eyes.

"Believe me when you're changed you wont need to ask for confirmation." I struggle to steady my breathing and keep the fear from my face, but I'm sure he hears the spike in my heartbeat as I realise he says _when_ and not if.

"They'll know it was you." I offer him the same ineffective warning as my last attacker. "The pack will find you and they'll rip you to shreds."

"Perhaps," he shrugs,"but I like to think I laid a fairly convincing false trail with the blood on your hooded top and that other vampire's arm."

"His arm?!"

"I burnt the rest of him of course, but when I found the part I'd missed I thought I might as well put it to good use. The trail leads about 30 miles in the opposite direction of town. Hopefully the dog's blood I used will have masked your true scent somewhat." He gestures toward my blood stained clothing.

"What? You killed one of them?" I howl in dismay.

"Calm down. I didn't kill one of your wolf friends, just merely a stray I found," he corrects me before musing "Although it's a pity, the stench of one of them would have been a more effectual mask for your scent?"

"You sick bastard, let me go."

"You probably won't choose to believe this but I am honestly sorry for this whole regrettable situation we find ourselves in. I didn't plan for this to happen but I'm afraid that now you're here I can't possibly let you go."

"Can't or won't?" And then with clearly no filter designed for self preservation I blurt. "Why haven't you just killed me already?"

"Believe me I've been sat here for the last few hours thinking about nothing else."

A shiver of terror runs down my spine as he elaborates. "The taste of your blood, your smell, it's all I can think about. I've never tasted anything quite as…," he pauses a troubled look on his face, "appetising doesn't quite do it justice. Enticing…exquisite…delectable." He shakes his head with a frown. "Your blood is like nothing I've ever experienced before."

"So why haven't you just…just drunk it?" _Christ what__'__s wrong with me why can__'__t I just shut up? It sounded like I just gave him an invitation!_

"Well, there you see is my problem. I've always made a point never to prey on the weak and innocent, although I suppose a slayer of vampires doesn't exactly fall into that category does it?" He flashes me a questioning smile but it's short lived his face grave when he continues. "I always targeted those who themselves posed a threat to society, whose deaths saved the lives of others. Surely someone in your line of business has herself justified the need for violence when it is for the greater good?"

He stares at me intently although I don't think he's really seeking an answer, I certainly wouldn't give him the satisfaction of one anyway. What exactly does he want? For me to condone what he's done in the past or, and I shudder at the thought, is he seeking my understanding before he kills me?

"Our paths crossed and I found myself drawn to you. Perhaps if I hadn't tasted your blood I could have managed to resist, but when the forbidden fruit was offered I'm afraid I didn't even consider foregoing the chance to discover if you tasted as good as you smelt. But I also made a promise to my sister, one that I wouldn't hurt you. And so far I haven't. Quite the opposite in fact," he says thoughtfully. "I saved your life. But now that I've tasted you there is no way I will be able to resist and if I release you, you and your dogs will hunt me down and slaughter me the first chance you have. So it seems that one way or the other this is going to end badly for one of us, unless that is…unless I change you."

"No! Anything but that." I shake my head violently at the madman who looks as if he honestly believes he's handed me an acceptable alternative.

"You would honestly prefer I killed you?" he asks his voice a mix of disbelief and disgust.

"I would rather be dead than be like you." I spit back.

"I feared as much," he sighs. "I as much as told my sister the same thing but she wouldn't have it."

"I don't understand what any of this has to do with your sister?" If nothing else I hope my question will stall him, not that it will help me, I can see no obvious way out of my predicament. I'm still bound tightly to the bed and even if by some miracle I manage to free myself I can see nothing in the bare shack that I could use to kill him.

"My sister has an unusual ability, she can see the future. It's fairly arbitrary of course, her visions can change as quickly as a person's mind. The future she sees is dependent on a person's decisions but one thing has been constant in her visions of late. A war is coming between the vampires. One that not only threatens to destroy our way of life but which would ultimately be devastating for humans. She has sought out the vampires her visions have shown and with the help of our family and myself, she has created an alliance with them and their covens."

"I still don't see what this has to do with me."

"She has seen you, as a vampire, standing with us. She hinted that I would be fundamental to your decision to join us, although I think I can correctly presume that this particular scenario isn't exactly what she would have hoped for. But she was delusional if she thought it would happen any other way." His final words muttered through gritted teeth seemingly more to himself than to me.

"You have to see that what I'm offering you is the best outcome, it's the only alternative. The prophecy can still be fulfilled, you will help to save the lives of millions of people. And," he looks at me tethered to the bed, "this way if you don't fight me, I should be able to stop."

"I don't want you to I'd rather die." I throw back at him but the boldness of my words are undermined as my trembling voice breaks on the last word revealing my absolute terror.

"You don't really mean that." He says as he approaches the head of the bed. Looking down at me he sombrely adds, "It would be easier if you didn't struggle but unfortunately that's inevitable and much as I'd like to tell you it wont hurt I'm afraid that would be a blatant lie."

"Please." I shake my head desperately, the hysteria building as I beg, "Please don't do this."

Leaning over me he places one hand firmly on my shoulder, ignoring the frantic thrashing of my head as I curse him manically. "I'm going to kill you, you fucker. You'd better drain every last drop from my body because otherwise I promise you the very first thing I'll do when I wake up is kill you. I'll rip your bloody head off."

"We'll see." He murmurs his eyes trained on my neck. He places his free hand on my forehead tilting my head to the side to award him greater access then lowering his head he inhales deeply before letting out his breath with a gratified sigh.

So silently its possible I'm imagining it, he breathes rather than whispers against my skin, "Sorry." His cool lips are soft and sweet and for a brief second I could be fooled that his true intention all along was merely to gift me a kiss until the caress is abruptly replaced by the searing pain of his teeth slicing into my neck.

I scream and struggle, but I am helpless against him.

As my body becomes weaker I lose the ability to fight against what he is doing. My eyes grow blurry, I am still protesting but the sounds are muffled as if my head is being held under water. He is literally draining the life from me. He was right, for all my noble words earlier now that it comes to the end, I don't want to die.

"Stop!" I mean to shout but it comes out as a feeble gasp. "Stop! Please! Stop!" I try to scream but my voice only seems to fade even further.

Just when it feels like I am going to fade away all together my failing body is given a jumpstart of pain. An excruciating volt of agony rips though my body, causing my back to buck from the bed. It travels to my extremities before rushing back to a single point of concentration within my neck.

My neck is on fire!

The heat is burning into me, I can feel the flames licking over my skin as they spread to my shoulders and up to the crown of my head. I scream for someone to save me but the fire just keeps spreading, out along my arms into the tips of my fingers, down across my chest. Eating away at me until it consumes my organs and burns a hole right through me, down and out towards my back.

A raging blaze is contained in what was once my stomach, its scorching heat melting me from the inside out at the same time that the inferno races its way down across the skin of my torso heating my sex with the heat of a thousand fires.

Time has no meaning as the fire continues to ravage me, sucking first my legs and then my feet into its hellish heat. Until every fibre of my being is aflame. I can no longer make a sound, the blaze has taken my voice, and I am left in a silent world of burning torment.

My heart is the only noise, sounding a steady beat amidst the chaos. Until all at once the inferno contracts once more racing like a searing river of fire back through my body, I can feel the molten heat travelling through my veins until they reach my heart engulfing it in a never-ending fiery torture.

Until it stops.

I lay completely still. In utter silence. I don't make a single sound. Gone is the steady beat of my heart and the fire that had screamed along my veins, not even the rhythmic rise and fall of my chest remains. I am no longer breathing.

"Bella. Bella."

I open my eyes turning toward the sound of the name that had once belonged to the human I had been.

"Bella?" Edward speaks my name again.

The second I think about rising from the table I am immediately up and off, standing before him. It takes me by surprise but yet I am not caught off balance, my feet are firmly planted on the floor.

I am aware of everything about me at once. The way the minute details of the dust particles ebb and flow in the stretch of sunlight from the small window…the feeling of the tiny splinters protruding from the rough wooden floorboards beneath my feet…the tiny spider weaving its web just above the door, the actual sounds of the silk being spun…the way the sunlight catches just one tiny part of Edward's hand causing tiny glints of light to dance from his skin…the flecks of red that surround his pupils whilst the rest of his eyes are now a delicious warm golden hue…the smell of pine and snow in the air that tells me the wind is blowing in from the north…the wonderful luminosity of his skin that my human eyes had been too dull to see…the nervous stance of his body that belies his poker face…the perfect shape of his cupid's bow…the burning scratch at the back of my throat that begs to be soothed.

I register it all within a fraction of a second but yet it isn't overwhelming, if anything it is strangely comforting.

"Bella," he speaks again and my ears no longer dim to the beauty of his melodious voice.

Suddenly all of the other distractions in the room shrink back and the only thing left of any importance is him.

Just as that first night I feel myself drawn to him as I feel a need growing in me. My eyes are fixed on his lips the memory of how they had whispered against the skin of my neck still fresh in my mind. I wonder how it would feel if I were to press my own mouth to his.

I step forward and he looks both surprised and relieved. He doesn't move letting me reach out to place my hands on either side of his face, as a deeper desire grows within me with a ferocious intensity.

In one sudden movement I rip his head from his body, tossing it to one side with a vicious snarl, before I tear out of the shack .

* * *

_**Okay calm down - don't lynch me yet! Bella ripped his head off but it could be worse she didn't set fire to the cabin.**_

_**I hadn't planned it but now I'm thinking maybe I need an Edward POV for the next chapter. Let me know what you think.**_

_**Thanks to those who have favourited/followed this story - I don't suppose there's any point asking for a review but it would be nice to know someone's out there reading and reviews/comments are the only way I can get any idea of whether people are enjoying this or not.**_

_**Thanks for reading anyway.**_


	7. Chapter Five Part Two

**Chapter Five part Two**

Edwards POV

Her skin is warm and soft against my lips as I inhale her wonderfully enticing scent before releasing my breath in a pleasured groan but my satisfaction is all too quickly replaced by a painful burn of hunger. I know there is no turning back now, I can no longer resist.

I had sat for hours watching Bella in her unconscious slumber debating what I should do. Weighing the morals of turning her and fulfilling Alice's vision of Bella as a vampire or releasing her, risking my own life and, if Alice is correct, those of countless others. All the time knowing that my internal wrangling was futile. There was only ever going to be one inevitable outcome.

But yet as I savour the feeling of her pulse throbbing beneath my lips, I'm filled with regret. I have always felt that every life I have taken could be justified but Bella is different. Although I know she would take my own life without hesitation, this is not a case of an eye for an eye and she doesn't deserve to die just to quench my raging thirst. But too weak or too selfish, I have lost the battle against the strength of my desire to taste her again.

Conflicting emotions tear at me and I find myself apologising for what I am about to do just before I surrender to my weakness.

The sweet soothing flow of her blood caresses the back of my throat, its taste a thousand times greater than when I licked it from my fingers. Her's is so unlike anyone else's blood I have ever tasted before. Her smell, tantalising as it is, didn't even begin to hint at the true ecstasy her taste now delivers.

I close my eyes, surrendering all other senses to the overwhelming need to satisfying my craving as I drink greedily. I experience the relief of a man saved from dying of thirst but yet if I should die this very moment I wouldn't care. I feel utterly complete.

_Death_.

I'm suddenly aware of the body beneath my hands, limp and no longer struggling. Her jaw slack, her lips are parted slightly and for one dreadful moment I fear I have gone too far and she has already taken her last breath but then I hear her feeble gasp of "stop."

Instead of continuing to drain her I frantically pump her vein with venom then lick the incision sealing her wound.

I've fed on many humans before but I've never tried to save any of them. I witnessed Carlisle change first Esme and then Rosalie healing their terrible wounds and saving their lives, and of course I remember my own personal transformation with horrific clarity. The difference was Carlisle did not feed from us first and I can't be certain that this is going to work. I can still hear the faint thump of her heart and I know that means the odds are in her favour but Bella's body looks too weak to be revived and it makes me anxiously pessimistic.

I am unprepared for the violent contortion of Bella's body, as with a jolt, her back arches sharply off the bed accompanied by a sickening scream of pain.

For what must be hours I stand frozen to the spot watching her body convulse and twist as she continues to scream and beg for mercy but I'm helpless to save her.

Every cry and spasm of agony from Bella, is an accusation ringing in my ears. I have inflicted this pain.

Unable to bear watching any more, I leave her to feed. It seems disrespectful for the first thing she'll see when she wakes to be the crimson of her blood in my eyes. I glut myself on deer and fox and any other animal I can find in the woods about the cabin, but I don't stray far or for long.

Bella is silent when I return. Although her face is still contorted in pain, her mouth stretched wide in an empty scream, her body can no longer form a sound. This new eery silence is more disturbing than any noise she's made so far.

By the second day the violent contortions of her body are gone and her face is no longer distorted in suffering, but I know that the agonising fire will still be raging inside.

I unbind her wrists and ankles, then using water collected from a nearby stream and my own undershirt I wash her exposed skin to clean away the spilt blood of the dog that still dirties her. If my sisters or mother were here I would ask them to strip her of her ruined clothes and wash the rest of her body. . I know its illogical, considering I had no qualms about abducting and feeding from her, but a lingering sense of turn of the century propriety prevents me from doing it myself. Imposing such a level of intimacy would be improper not to mention ungentlemanly whilst she is incapacitated.

Her delicate warm skin has slowly grown cold, wiped clean of any blemish of the past, the scars of old battles that had marked her arms have all been erased,

The hairs upon her arms are now so fine they are barely visible, whilst her lustrous head of hair now falls in silken curtains to her shoulders, her lashes too are noticeably longer and fuller and her eyebrows shaped into perfect arches.

Her nose has straightened infinitesimally, her lips grown a fraction more plump and luscious whilst their soft pink has deepened a shade darker.

She is magnificent, a marble goddess. Ancients would have fought wars and sacrificed lives over such a beauty. But I cannot find glory or reason to celebrate this new immaculate version she has become when there was nothing wrong with the original to begin with.

I am responsible for the destruction of her naturally beautiful imperfections and soon she will be just as I am an absolutely flawless creature of unholy perfection. The very abomination that she once hunted.

As I continue to watch Bella I find my mind drifting to thoughts which both shock and disturb me. The decision to change Bella was supposed to be a means to both satisfy my craving and put an end to the growing obsession with her blood, but now I find myself equally preoccupied. Worrying about the level of pain she must be enduring, regretting that I don't have fresh clothes to offer her yet reluctant to leave her for too long to find a suitable clothing store. It is ridiculous that I should be clucking over her like some mother hen over its newborn, ludicrously concerned for a human who only days ago was set on hunting and destroying me. I presume my bizarrely uncharacteristic concerns are due to guilt.

At one point I even find myself making future plans for the future for us both. I suppose at the very least I will have to take Bella to my family and admit what I have done. Alice will have seen my decision to change Bella anyway so there is no point trying to hide the fact.

Carlisle will be horrified, his previous disappointment over my choice of diet will pale in comparison with the despair at what I have done. Although my father has himself changed others, he has never done so without serious soul-searching and consideration. He is sure to be appalled to discover that I have made my own decision based purely on my inability to curb my appetite.

Rather than solve my problem I have only created another. As a newborn Bella will be my responsibility at least until a time when she can control her bloodlust and even then as her creator there is a chance I will be tied to this troublesome human in some way for eternity.

I feed early in the morning on the third day. I know that its ridiculous to try to flood my body with animal blood, whatever I do Bella's blood will not leave me quite so quickly. But I can't shake the feeling that it would be callus to flaunt the fact that I have fed so fully on her. This way at least the red of my eyes will be diluted with a more acceptable attractive golden colour.

When I return Bella lies completely still, her transition almost complete.

I listen as the drum of her heart slows until it gives one final beat.

I run my fingers through my hair and smooth down the front of my shirt, brushing a little dirt from the sleeve.

I know she's awake but she doesn't move.

"Bella? Bella?" Why doesn't she open her eyes? Has something gone wrong?

She turns her head and looks at me. Her deep crimson eyes considering and analysing me but she makes no other move. Is it possible that she does not remember?

"Bella?" Before I even finish repeating her name she has leapt from the table making a perfect landing inches from me. She is motionless except for her eyes, I see them dart about the room taking everything in until they fix on me again. She stares with intent fascination at my mouth before she raises her eyes meeting mine with a look of wonder and a hunger in them. I feel an alien nervous skittering sensation in my stomach.

It's not until she steps closer that I understand the constant brooding feeling that has unsettled me over the last few days. All through the long hours of waiting I have been anxious about what her initial response to me would be. It wasn't just that I didn't want her to be alarmed by the red of my eyes. I can see now how important it was to me that she didn't hate me.

She reaches forward a little tentative at first before confidently placing her hands on my face, I feel the tension in my body release as I lean forward to meet her.

There's a wicked spark of desire burning in her eye hinting at a side of her that I want to learn more of. Her mouth is almost on mine when simultaneously I feel and hear the screaming grind of stone against stone and the excruciating wrench of her hands.

And then I am left in darkness.


	8. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

Bella POV

I run from the cabin and I don't stop running.

I speed through the trees unhindered by the uneven forest floor, crossing rocky passes without gaining so much as a scratch and during the night my bare feet pound the long dark stretch of the deserted highway. Never needing to stop to consult signage or think about the direction I'm headed, my body seems to possess some internal compass that points my way.

I run and I don't stop until I reach home.

I view the house I've called home for the last three years as if seeing it for the first time. I note all its decaying defects, that I've never bother to notice before, in glaring detail. The paint peeling from the woodwork, the tiny crack in the corner of an upstairs window, the moss growing on the down pipe, cigarette butts that have been flicked from the front porch and a discarded drinks can that lies long forgotten behind a bush. It makes the place seem strangely unfamiliar.

I just want to get inside, take a much needed shower, change into some clean clothes and experience some kind of normality even if for only the briefest of seconds.

I may have survived the long journey unscathed but my clothes haven't fared so well. The incessant rain that followed me for the second half of my journey washed most of the dried blood from my clothes and body but my running pants are now splattered in mud and torn in several places, and my bare feet are filthy. From the stink coming from inside the house I'm not the only one who could benefit from a wash.

As I swing open the front gate and start up the front path I clearly hear the call of alarm from inside. The door bursts open and three of the pack instantly crash on to the porch staring me down.

"Bella?" Sam's face is horrified as he recognises me, Jared beside him shares the same expression but Paul's shoulders are already trembling a tell-tell sign that he is moments away from phasing. Before he has a chance Jake rushes from the house pushing past the three of them and leaping down the steps.

"Bella!" He cries in dismay as he runs toward me before coming to a sudden halt, almost as if an invisible arm has reached out to jerk him back. He looks over his shoulder towards the house with a furious glare but is met with a stern look of warning from Sam. It is easy to guess what is passing between them. Sam, as alpha, has ordered Jake to stop before he could reach me.

"What happened to you? Who did this?" Jake demands utterly aghast.

"It doesn't matter I dealt with him." I answer curtly.

"Shit!" He curses loudly. I can tell he's fighting his body's natural reaction to his temper. There's a vein pulsing on his temple and I can see the tension in his jaw as he resists the urge to phase into a wolf. He keeps shifting from foot to foot clenching and unclenching his fists in an agitated manner, as he mutteringly swears to himself, "Fuck how can this have happened?" Knowing Jake, I bet he wishes there was something to hand he could punch. "What are you going to do?" He asks shaking his head despair.

_You_ not _we._ I can tell by the look on his face that he notices the moment it dawns on me that I can't stay here. During my journey I thought of nothing but getting home but Jake's stunned then apologetic expression, not to mention the three pack members still eyeing me warily, makes it obvious I am no longer welcome here. This isn't my home any more. I was in denial to think I could come back here as I am now, but I have no idea where else I am supposed to go.

"I'm sorry Bella but you know you can't stay here." Jake states with pained eyes.

"I know… of course…" I bluff. "I just came to collect my stuff. I need my clothes and my father's things." I state firmly attempting to cover the fact that I was dumb enough to think a pack of werewolves would accept me as well as hide the heavy feeling of utter desolation that is creeping over me.

My request is met with a resolute "No!" from the porch.

Jake shakes his head apologetically. "You know I can't give your father's things Bella. They can only be given to a hunter, to passed from generation to generation. And that isn't you any more."

"Why not? That's what I am. I've given up everything to follow that life. I dropped out of college worked crappy jobs barely scraping by to dedicate myself to hunting. Why can't I keep hunting with you, I'll be much more use to you now." I start off angry but just end up sounding desperate.

Jake looks uncomfortable but Sam speaks with decisive authority from the top of the steps. "Our kind and your kind do not work together. Vampires cannot be trusted. Have you fed yet Bella? Have you killed? We've all seen newborns in action before, once you start you wont be able to stop, it takes decades to bring the bloodlust under control."

"I want my father's things…" I start to argue but Sam cuts me off.

"They don't belong to you anymore."

"But they're mine!" I snap and I see Sam's shoulders tense, his muscles flexing.

"They belonged to Bella Swan and she's dead." He answers with finality.

_Ouch! Nice, real nice, way to hit a girl when she__'__s down asshole. _Ever fibre of my being is desperate to run up there and tear his throat out.

"Bella," Jake brings my attention back to him, his voice grounding me.

"I'm sorry Bella but I can't help you." He says again but his eyes indicate down to his chest where his hand motions in a familiar signal hidden from the eyes of his pack members. A single gesture as if tipping a pint glass. It reminds me of a fraught time in the house when Sam's two girlfriends found out about each other. Jake and I used to catch each others eyes amongst the screaming and fighting, invariably one of us would gesture to the other and we'd escape the house for the local Irish pub.

"Okay. I understand," I nod.

O'Neill's is only a short walk from the house but at human pace the journey seems painfully slow.

I am almost there when a girl steps out of a coffee shop, cup in one hand mobile in the other, directly into my path.

"Ugh, God! Can't you look where you're going?" She huffs in irritation checking her top for spilt coffee. When she looks up she makes no attempt to hide her look of disgust. "Hold on will you ," she says to whoever is on the other end of the phone call, "there's a homeless person here, who is like just staring at me." I guess she is right, I probably do look like a bag lady. "Look," she says adopting a tone as if I am retarded. "I'm not going to give you any money. I don't believe in enabling people like you, because lets face it's not like whatever I give you isn't going to be spent of drugs or alcohol. I mean have you even seen your eyes? I've never seen anyone so bloodshot!"

Bloodshot! It appears she isn't just a stuck up bitch she is an idiot as well.

"So?" she says continuing to look at me as if I'm a bit of shit on her shoe and gesturing impatiently with her hand, "Are you get out of my way."

I side step to let her continue along the street. "Uggh!" She groans into her mobile her voice thick with disgust, "You should have seen her! I can't believe she almost touched me… I know gross…can you imagine?" I feel the ripples her shudder causes even with my back to her.

Fuck I hate people like her.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath to control my anger, realising a fraction of a second too late what a mistake that is. Rather than calm me the deep intrinsic need that until this second has been simmering quietly beneath the surface rears its ugly head with full force. The smell of her hot rich blood fills my senses, the scratch in the back of my throat turning into a full-on burn that screams to be quenched. I can see the pulse thrumming at the pressure point and the beat of the blood pumping through her is drumming in my ears.

I hear Edward's words echoing in my head as the monster in me roars to be let loose. "Can we never truly justify violence?" Would the world really be a worst place tomorrow is she was no longer in it? I have to feed at some point and wouldn't it be better if it were someone like her?

In less time than it takes for her mobile to fall from her hand and hit the pavement, I am able to confirm there's no one watching, survey the area for a suitably secluded spot and drag her into the alley behind a dumpster. My teeth pierce the skin of her neck before she even opens her mouth to scream. The heavenly flow soothes the parched scorched feeling at the back of my throat I've had since I woke but it still doesn't seem to fully quench the thirst. I drink and drink until my victim has nothing left to offer.

Drained I drop her limp body to the floor.

Staring at her lying there with an almost peaceful expression on her face, you could almost mistake her for being asleep. She looks much younger like this. There is a chance she is only in her teens and not her 20s as I previously assumed. In one impulsive moment I have just robbed her of the chance to drink her first legal beer, fall in love and get married, have kids, grow old and do all the things she was supposed to do.

It's not the first time I have killed, or assisted to kill, but this is different. This wasn't a monster, this was just a girl - someone's daughter, sister, friend, girlfriend. How many lives have I just destroyed with my uncontrollable greed? Simply because I didn't even attempt to restrain my anger and thirst. What kind of an animal am I?

But I had to feed and someone had to pay for my hunger and if not her then who? As sick as I feel at what I have done, I know would and will do again. It tasted so good.

Like Sam said Bella Swan is dead. Bella Swan would never have killed an innocent girl but Isabella, the vampire Edward Masen created, was just doing exactly what her instincts told her she had to do to survive. It is simply the natural law of the predator and its prey, no different than a lion taking down a gazelle to sustain it. I ignore the deep rooted doubt that tells me my reasoning is flawed, that I am not an animal and so should not be driven by a base desire. I am not so far gone yet that I have lost the ability to know right from wrong, but what other choice do I have?

It isn't my fault I didn't ask for this. I told him to kill me. This is all _his_ fault. Whatever I have become is entirely his doing and I hate him for it.

I work quickly to strip the body of its clothes. I guess correctly that she is about my size and the jeans and top are not a bad fit, at any rate they are an improvement on my tattered muddied running outfit. I hesitate over the shoes. I've never been good in heels they turn me into a complete klutz the minute I put them on, I usually end up going arse over tit on the floor. But I can't walk into a bar with muddy bare feet so I slip them on. I don't wobble even a tiny bit, instead I feel balanced and sure footed. It seems Isabella the vampire can walk in heels without tripping over.

I have just drained a girl of blood, so it seems a little late too be gaining a conscience but ridiculously I feel incredibly guilty about cleaning out the girl's purse of cash.

I stash the body in the dumpster, knowing that I'll have to come back and take care of it later, and hurry on to O'Neills. Despite everything that has just occurred only ten minutes have passed since I left the pack house and I still manage to reach the Irish pub before Jake does.

"Bella, the usual?" The barmaid greets me as a regular. I nod as she continues to make conversation, complementing me. "I like the new look." I guess the top I am wearing is dressier than anything she is used to seeing me in. "And have you done something to your hair?" I shake my head with a smile, not telling her my style is the result of extreme blow drying, running across half the country at break-neck speed. "Rough night huh?" She surmises.

If only she knew, but I presume her judgement is based on the fact I am wearing the dead girl's sunglasses inside and I haven't spoken a word. Truth is I am holding my breath, if I can't smell anyone then surely I can't be tempted to rip their jugular out. Right?

I take a sip of the Guinness she's set in front of me. Luckily her attention is called to another customer further down the bar and she doesn't see me pull a face before spitting the dark liquid back into the pint glass. It tastes like shit.

"Bells." I look up to see Jake, he eyes me cautiously for a moment before sliding onto the empty bar seat beside me.

He unslings a backpack from his shoulder and places it on the floor with a nod.

"Thank you Jake."

"We don't have long, it wont take Sam long to work out what I've done."

"How did you manage it? I thought Sam gave you an order not to give the stuff to me." I ask confused.

Jake sighs and scratches the back of his neck. "He can't give an order to an other alpha."

"What? But how? I don't understand how can you become an alpha?"

"Hey, its a little insulting that you sound quite so surprised. My grandfather was a chief remember." He says attempting, but failing, to lighten the mood.

"Its just I wasn't expecting it. I'm sorry Jake I didn't mean for this …for me to force you out of the pack."

"It's not your fault, well not completely," he says managing a teasing grin. "Seriously it's been a long time coming. I guess I'm just not cut out to take orders, well at least not from Sam."

"So if you're no longer with the pack you and I, we could carry on hunting together." I suggest feeling a tingling of hope but he shakes his head with an awkward grimace.

"I can't Bella, its not just me. That idiot Seth insisted that if I was leaving the pack he was too and of course wherever he goes his overbearing sister has to go too."

"I think her decision might have something to do with _you_ too." The two of them may fight like cat and dog, but I know Leah is secretly interested in doing much more than just fight with Jake.

I hear the pack outside at the same time Jake bristles turning his head toward the window.

"Sam and the others are here."

"Did they really think I'd hurt you?" I huff insulted.

"I don't think it was me they were worried about Bella." Jake states simply.

I look about the pub. It is fairly quiet considering it's early on a Tuesday evening. Just the barmaid, three old men at the far end of the bar and a couple of guys playing pool.

A mixture of holding my breath as much as I can and concentrating on Jake has helped keep my mind off of them, but now that they are brought to my attention I can make out each unique rhythm of their separate heart beats, I can smell the heat of their blood and taste their sweat in the air. I become fixated on the flexing pulse at the barmaid's wrist as she pours another pint.

"Go Bella." Jake whispers, his voice calming but whilst eyeing me nervously at the same time.

I nod in agreement. "I'll see you around" I offer but I know its an empty promise.

He just smiles sadly and nods.

"Thanks Jake, for everything." I say earnestly before adding, "I really did love you, you know that don't you."

"I know you did. Just not the way I always hoped you would." He doesn't look sad just resigned. "Now go Bella before they come in and make you leave."

Jake heads out the front entrance to handle the pack as I slip out the back exit.

My body automatically flies into a defensive stance a snarl exploding from me as I spy two vampires waiting for me in the car park.

"Hello Bella we've been waiting for you."

* * *

_**Ooops Bella ate someone! She's not doing so well is she? That's two people she's killed so far if you count Edward. **_

_**I meant to ask at the end of the last chapter whether anyone had any solid theories on how long it would take for Edward's head and body to reunite. What do we reckon? A week, a month, a year? I can't quite decide how long to make him suffer for what he did to Bella.**_

_**Thanks to everyone who has followed/favourited this story - I know there's not many of you but honestly its more than I was expecting so thanks.**_

_**Leave a review if you want. It helps motivate me and I need it at the moment because I still haven't written the last couple of chapter of the story yet. And if unmotivated I might just kill them all off! **_


	9. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

The two vampires study me from their positions one leaning, arms crossed, against the side of a parked car the other perched cross legged on its hood.

"Hello Bella, we've been waiting for you," the smaller of the two chirps brightly as she hops down from the front of the car.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I growl. I don't relax the aggressive stance I had automatically adopted as soon as I sensed them, but yet she wanders towards me as if she's approaching an old friend.

Friendly or not I don't trust her, especially as her companion's posture simply oozes hostility. Where as the little one looks like a perky little pixie and gives off the same vibe her companion, who with her flowing mane of blonde hair and curvaceous figure is the image of a 1950's pinup, looks like she distrusts me just as much as I do her. She would be stunningly gorgeous if it weren't for one thing; the cold hard glower, that I suspect is a permanent fixture, makes her far more terrifying than alluring and I keep my eye on her with wary suspicion.

"We're here to help you," the small one offers with a smile.

"And what makes you think I need your help?" I respond sharply.

"Oh I don't know, perhaps because you've been in the city for less than an hour and you've already stuffed a dead body into a dumpster," is the blonde's snarky reply. "In fact I think you might still have a little dead cheerleader just there." She deadpans gesturing to where there may or may not be blood in my hair.

"So what if there is? What does that have to do with you?"

She shrugs in a _I really couldn't care less what you do_ fashion but the little pixie pipes up. "We want to show you there's another way to live, _don__'__t we_ Rosalie," she emphasises. If she's disappointed that blondie makes no attempt to back her up she doesn't show it, merely continuing to push her point. "You don't have to continue down the path that you've started on. We took care of the body for you but if you come with us we can help you make sure you don't make any more mistakes Bella."

I grit my teeth; riled by her seeming righteousness, ignoring the fact that her voice holds no malice or superiority instead choosing to only hear criticism. Who is this stranger to judge me and tell me what I can and cannot do?

"It's Isabella," I curtly correct her, "and I'm sorry if I wasn't tidy enough for you, I'll make sure I clean up after myself next time. God forbid that anyone find out what I am…what monsters we all are and what exactly it is that we do." I know she's right of course, I of all people know how important it is to hide our existence from the world but the two of them have annoyed me and I feel a churlish need to contradict them. "Yes, I killed someone but that is what vampires do isn't it?"

"She's not ready for this Alice," Rosalie states. "There's no point talking to her now, I told you she'd be too far gone once she had fed. It's clear she feels no remorse for what she's done."

"Who are you to say how I feel?" I snap back. "Do you think I want to be like this? I didn't ask for any of this. "

"What and we did?" Rosalie bites back. "Do you honestly believe that given the choice we would have chosen this life? Shit happens, you just have to deal with it. You can't keep blaming others for your actions, at some point you'll have to take responsibility."

"Really Rosalie?" Alice the pixie says raising her eyebrows at her friend. "_Shit happens_?"

Rosalie shrugs unapologetically. "I think what Rosalie is trying to say in her own eloquently cliched way," Rosalie narrows her eyes at Alice, "is that you wont find many vampires who actually chose this life but the way we decide to live it is up to us. We believe there is a better to way than the brutal existence most vampires adopt. We feed on animals so that we don't have to take the lives of others to survive. I wont lie, it can be hard but it helps to find a purpose in life to concentrate on, something to tie you to your humanity so you don't loose track of the person you used to be. Ours can be a long hollow life if you don't have something meaningful to fill the empty hours."

"So you're telling me that what? If I find a satisfying hobby all of a sudden I wont crave blood?" I ask cynically "Tell me what exactly is it that you two do? Quilting on the front porch?"

"Alice here is trying to save the civilised world as we know it." Rosalie responds with only the slightest hint of sarcasm.

"…as well as dabbling in fashion design," Alice chimes in, "and Rosalie is the largest private benefactor to the United Nations Children's Fund and you know she also…"

Rosalie gives a warning snarl of "Alice" under her breath but Alice continues seemingly oblivious to her friends ire. "…in her spare time she likes to knit toy cats in fancy dress."

"Feline figurines individually handcrafted from natural materials dressed in authentic national costumes actually Alice," she corrects haughtily, turning her flinty stare back to me she adds, "and it's a very lucrative internet business."

The idea of this blond glamazon filling her time recreating a knitted a cat version of the 'it's a small world after all' Disney ride in her bedroom makes me bark out loud with laughter. Alice presses her lips together to stop herself joining me and Rosalie scowls at us.

"So what do you think?" Alice says flitting towards me a bright smile on her face. "Just come with us, let us show you how we hunt and where we live." And with what appears to be heartfelt sincerity she urges, "I just want you to know that you have options, you don't have to follow the path that seems the most obvious."

I can feel my resolve softening, Alice is just so goddamn upbeat it is contagious, I wonder how much of a grouch Rosalie would be if she didn't have Alice's effervescent cheeriness rubbing off on her, yet I still feel the need to resist their offer. Of course I have reservations about trusting vampires, even though Alice seems genuine, but there's more to my reluctance than that. If I do choose to believe that there is an alternative way to exist I'm conceding that what I did earlier was solely my fault. By continuing to believe I had no other choice, that it was just an innate reaction, I can absolve myself of all guilt. But it they are right, I can no longer lay the whole blame with Edward, he changed me but he didn't force me to kill that girl. I will have to acknowledge what I already know is true. Yes, my instinct kicked in when I bit through my prey's throat and once her blood passed my lips I'd been devoid of all thought apart from how incredible it felt. But there was moment before all of that, a point when I could have made a conscious decision to walk away yet I chose not to. I allowed myself to drink, I allowed myself to become a murderer, because I wanted to.

But I don't want to be that monster again, so I swallow my pride and agree.

"Okay." I nod. "I'll come with you. But I'm not making any promises."

"I know." She says with cheery optimism; ignoring my reaction as I freeze, eyes widening in surprise as she loops her arm through mine exclaiming enthusiastically as she does. "We're going to have so much fun clothes shopping."

We head north out of the city through a National Park and across the border into Canada. On the way as we travel through the wide expanse of parkland they show me how they hunt wildlife.

Rosalie is just as terrifyingly brilliant I expected. A powerful and elegant lioness whom I watch in awe as she brings a giant beast of a stag to his knees by his antlers simultaneously sinking her teeth into his hide. He doesn't have a chance to struggle. When she straightens up, brushing off an invisible speck of dirt from her jeans, she doesn't have a single hair out of place.

Alice is as light and nimble as the sprite she resembles. She takes cover in the branches of a tree, silently waiting until a doe steps into the clearing beneath her and then she simply drops silently snapping its neck mercifully before drinking.

When it's my turn I accidentally step on a twig as I creep toward the small herd I have chosen. Their ears prick at the sound and they're off but I soon realise the chase is exactly what I want, even if it is too disappointingly easy. With a flying leap I wrestle a deer to the ground avoiding its kicking hooves and sink my teeth into its flesh.

I can't lie. It doesn't taste great. Not awful, just not wonderful, not sweet and intoxicating, I don't find myself craving more after I'm finished but neither do I feel satisfied.

"Interesting hunting style," Rosalie comments looking at my mud stained trousers and the blood splatters on my shirt. "A few tips you picked up from hunting with dogs?"

"Sure. You should see the way they can take down a vampire and rip him to pieces in a matter of seconds." I respond with a sarcastically sweet smile.

"The best thing about following a _vegetarian_ diet as we like to refer to it," Alice assures me as we continue on our journey, "is that over time your eyes will become a golden caramel colour like ours. It means when you're ready it will be much easier to integrate with the general public. People tend to be a bit freaked out by the red eyes!"

Their home is just on the park's border, hidden amongst trees and way off the beaten track, you would be hard pushed to find it unless you knew precisely where you were looking for.

"You two live here alone?" I ask. The place is huge, practically a mansion.

"No. It actually belongs to our parents." Rosalie says, she must see my surprise as she elaborates. "They're not our actual parents but Carlisle was mine and my brother's maker, that is he turned us, its part of the reason we call him our father. Alice joined our family after she saw how we lived. Carlisle and his wife Esme are like parents to us."

"Are they here?"

"No." responds Alice. "They're currently overseas looking up some old friends. They'll be back in a month or so."

"A month?" Rosalie sounds shocked.

"Yes, I think they're going to need to take a detour via Ireland on the way back so they'll be a bit longer than we expected."

Rosalie nods but I get the feeling the conversation isn't over and will continue once I'm out of the way.

The bottom half of one side of the house consists entirely of a large bank of glass windows that retract to open onto a decked outdoor seating area. We enter the house into a large open plan living space to find a large male, sat on a cream sofa at the far end of the room, playing a computer game on an enormous flat screen mounted on the wall.

"Hey there," he calls over without taking his eyes off the game.

"Is that your brother?"

"No," Alice shakes his head, "He's not staying with us at the moment, that's Emmett he's…"

"Just someone who doesn't know when he's over stayed his welcome." Rosalie interjects.

"Come on babe you know you love having me about the place, you'd miss my scintillating wit and our stimulating chats if I left," he grins.

"God as if! Wit would imply you possessed some level of intelligence when all you actually have is an endless repertoire of smutty remarks and innuendo. I don't know why Alice thinks we need your help the only _talent_ you have is the ability to be a colossal jerk."

"Perhaps she's keeping me around to give you something to look at." He says putting the gaming controls down and standing up to give her a better view as he flexes his biceps with a comically lascivious wink. I thought Jake and Sam were built but they were nothing compared to this vampire. He is seriously big with, it seems, an ego to match.

"Put it away." Rosalie dismisses unamused.

"Come on, I've seen you looking," He continues to tease, walking over to where she is stood. "I don't know why you bother to fight it Rosie, we both now you want a piece of this really."

"Ugh…" she shudders in disgust, "I can't understand why anyone wasted their time turning an arrogant misogynist redneck pig like you."

"What can I say? My momma made me just they way I am, and she sure did love it." He responds, winking at her again with a suggestive smirk firmly on his face.

"God you're revolting, you're such…ugh… such an animal."

"You better believe it honey. And I don't mean one of those crazy arsed knitted pussies of yours either, hell if that isn't a sign of sexual frustration I don't know what it is. Oh and just because you haven't witnessed my _talent_ don't mean I ain't got one and I promise you once you've experienced it you wont be interested in wasting your nights knitting those creepy little fuckers anymore."

"Pig!" she spits storming off leaving a chuckling Emmett to go back to his game.

"Match made in heaven." I comment expecting Alice to tell me how awful living with them is but instead she just smiles knowingly before leading me upstairs to show me my room.

The bedroom is huge but starkly minimalist, not at all what I'd been expecting, not that I've ever visited a vampire's luxury mansion before. Most of the vampires that the pack and I hunted weren't exactly into interior design, most tend to live a fairly nomadic existence. Even the more established covens don't lay down too many roots in case they have to move on at short notice. But this place certainly hasn't been thrown together in a haphazard way. Someone had taken a lot of trouble with the design, colour schemes and soft furnishings. Which is why the guest room surprises me I would have expected something warm and welcoming, more in keeping with the rest of the house.

There is no bed at all, just a leather couch against one wall facing the large windows that look out over the trees. I can't see a TV but there is an impressive looking sound system. I saw Jake drooling over something similar in a magazine once, jokingly putting the phenomenally expensive stereo on his wish list for when he won the lottery. There's a wall entirely devoted to rows of CDs and Vinyl, with a much smaller shelf housing an eclectic mix of books.

"There's more downstairs if you're looking for something to read," Alice says as she watches me run my fingers along the spines. "We have an extensive library in the east wing, I'll show you later."

Strangely this doesn't surprise me, I mean why wouldn't they have room for a library in this mansion of a place? In, what did she call it, the east wing Christ how many wings does the house have?

"But much more important is this." She takes my hand and I let her tow me out of the room. I've never really had that many girl friends before, I was always one of the lads really, and certainly never a girly hand holder. But like I said, Alice's optimism seems to be infectious and it feels kind of nice, that is until I see what she's led me into. A walk in wardrobe doesn't quite cover it, we stand in an extensive dressing room each of its long walls covered with racks and racks of clothes.

"I think these over here will be just perfect for you." She skips to the left wall, running her hand over the various materials before pulling out a dress. It's something I would never consider picking out myself and I automatically wince at her selection.

"No? Oh well perhaps we'll wean you in gently," she concedes and pulls out a light sweater and jeans instead. The sweater is a light girly blue; I'm absolutely certain I have never owned, or wanted to own, an article of clothing in that colour before but I don't want to seem ungrateful so I take them with a strained smile.

"You probably want to take a shower. So I'll just find you some underwear and lay everything out of the bed for you."

If the silk shift dress Alice initially selected is her idea of practical day wear I don't want to think what kind of underwear she is going to pick, but it is more than kind of her to loan me her clothes so I just nod.

The ensuite is nearly as huge as the bedroom itself. As well as a walk in shower a large old fashioned roll topped bath with ornate feet that stands in the centre of the room. I remove the dead girl's clothes and leave them in a pile outside the bathroom. I hope that Alice will understand and dispose of them for me, I have no desire to ever see them again.

The hot water of the shower feels amazing. I scrub my body and shampoo twice just in case what Rosalie had said was true about the blood in my hair. Stepping out of the shower I come face to face with my reflection for the first time.

It's me but it isn't.

Isabella the vampire looks like Bella Swan, but she is just too perfect to be real. Even with my hair wet I can tell it is fuller and glossier. My waist seems smaller, my hips more shapely, my legs lengthened and toned. Turning to check out my side view I'm pretty sure my ass is perter and my breasts are definitely larger yet somehow perkier. It is like someone has made one of those action figures of me and enhanced all the right bits to make it better than the real thing. The scars I've collected over my years of hunting are all gone, only one scar remains. The one _he_ left on my neck. Silvery white impossibly thin outlines of his teeth now brand my skin, leaving me with a permanent reminder of the bastard.

I've learnt enough about vampires over the years to know that what I did won't have put a permanent end to him, freakily his head and body will manage to unite again over time.

Perhaps I should have finished the fucker for good, but at least this way if I ever meet him again I get to enjoy ripping his head off all over again.

And next time I might just stop to light a fire.


	10. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

I'm not sure I'll ever get used to not sleeping.

It's not like I physically miss it, I don't even get tired. It's obvious now why there isn't a bed in the room and really the couch is superfluous as well; I don't need to sit or rest, I just do from time to time for something different to do.

But without sleep there's nothing to break up time, it all just runs into each other. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week. Time takes on a different meaning and at the same time no meaning at all. I think it's why there are so few clocks in this house. Sometimes I can be stood thinking about something then the next thing I know half the day has passed and I'm still stood in the same spot having not moved for hours.

So it is a surprise and yet almost expected when I hear the date on the TV and realise I have been living in the house with Alice, Rosalie and Emmett for almost six weeks.

Six long weeks that have simply disappeared in a haze of apathetic nothingness.

It's not so much that I've fallen into a depression so much as having fallen into an inertia. Even with a never ending supply of energy I'm too lifeless to muster the enthusiasm to do anything and really what exactly is there do? Everyday is just the same. I don't have anything to worry about, no where to go, nothing I need to do beyond hunting and even that isn't entirely satisfying.

I got used to hunting first with the girls and then slowly, as they trusted me, on my own. Although I can successfully spring an attack on my chosen prey without it sensing me before its too late, I still prefer a chase but it is always too pedestrianly easy to make it real sport. Emmett, who has recently discovered the joy of hunting bears, has tried to talk me into joining him on his next hunting trip, assuring me bears will provide more of a sporting challenge but something about having to get my teeth past all that hair doesn't seem particularly appetising.

Also new to _vegetarianism_, Emmett has found it difficult to stick to the restrictive diet but apparently I've astounded everyone with my level of self-control. I don't tell them that every time I crave something more substantial I picture myself red eyed, blood dripping down my chin, the very devil I once hunted coming face to face with Jake and seeing the look in his eyes as he recognises the monster I've become; my self-disgust is enough to hold the bloodlust at bay but it doesn't feel like a cause for celebration.

Honestly most of the time I feel fairly devoid of emotion, celebratory or otherwise. I always feel the same, neither good nor bad. Not that I can actually have an off day. I'm never going to wake up tired, hunger-over or under the weather, something I suppose I should feel grateful for. Instead I wish I could wake up to find an almighty zit on my chin or suffering a bad hair day, imperfections that could remind me how it felt to be normal but physically I am always perfectly perfect from head to toe especially as I have resigned myself to being Alice's dress up doll. I have rows upon rows of clothes to choose from now and half the time I just stare at them without a clue, or without a care, as to what's supposed to go with what. Alice loves picking out outfits for me so I let her, I still veto her more impractical suggestions but otherwise I simply wear whatever she lays out for me; after all it's not like I'm going anywhere or meeting anyone new.

Their parents, Carlisle and Esme, have still not returned; their trip taking longer than thought with them making an extended stay in London as well as the detour through Ireland. Neither has Rosalie and Alice's brother made an appearance. So it remains just Alice, Rosalie, Emmett and I in the house, which can be tense at times. Emmett and Rosalie continue to bicker every time they interact but I have discovered that Emmett is not the misogynist redneck she accuses him of, in fact he's far from it. He is only an arse to Rose and that's just because she makes it so much fun for him.

On my third day here I found myself roaming the house looking for something to do. Both the girls seemed to have gone AWOL. I had already checked out the library but the scary speed in which I could read a book from cover to cover seemed to take the enjoyment out of it. I'd spent a few hours playing music in my room, the family have amassed a crazily eclectic mix and there was some good stuff there as well as some really duff soft rock, but I just didn't seem to be able to find anything to kill the boredom.

I found Emmett playing a video game, ironically shooting up the living dead.

"Hey new girl, you look like you'd know your way round a joy stick," he grinned. "Wanna play?"

"Okay," I threw myself down next to him and we'd spent the rest of the day playing.

I thrashed his ass.

I also discovered he was a pretty good guy.

"You know what Emmett McCarthy, I think you're a fraud? You're not the complete cocky redneck dick you pretend to be." He just laughed unoffended.

"Seriously what's with all the cracks at Rosalie?" I asked bluntly.

"If that's what she wants to believe I am, then that's what I'll give her. I've always been used to people presuming I was something I'm not just because of how I look. I'm big and built, so I must be all brawn and no brains right? Sometimes I just get fed up fighting it. So I act the way they expect me to. It's just sad because I get the feeling that Rosalie knows exactly how that feels."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, the first time you met her tell me you didn't instantly think cold hard bitch? But I've seen her when she's with Alice, she acts different when she thinks its just the two of them, softer less abrasive. It makes me think the rest is just a front. We always presume stunningly beautiful girls like that are used to getting everything their own way right? Yet that girl is anything but satisfied with her life. I've been here for about six months now and I could count the number of times I've seen her really laugh on one hand, hell I wouldn't even need all five fingers to do it. Perhaps if she stopped acting so superior and showed us who she really is, I might cut her some slack and quit teasing her so much. But she'd have to get the chip off her shoulder and the stick out her arse first. Their brother is just the same."

"You've met him? What's he like?" I felt a spark of interest at the mention of this mysterious brother. "No one ever seems to talk about him, they don't even mention his name."

"Well…I don't really know that much about him." I sensed Emmett was back tracking.

"Not you as well Emmett, you have to at least tell me his name. Come on you must have some idea why he doesn't live here any more."

"He's uh..called Ed…Eddie. He and the family have had a bit of a falling out about his diet."

"He feeds on humans?" Emmett nodded. "And they don't approve?"

"There was a big falling out, in fact every time he turns up there's a huge row."

"So that's why he hasn't been here for a while?"

"Yup, he's in big trouble this time I bet he's worried someone will really want his head for it." He grinned slyly. I missed my chance to grill him further when the others walked in and Emmett went back to his favourite game of Rose baiting.

Whilst I'm intrigued to learn more about their brother, I'm glad that its just the four of us. I'm not sure I'm ready for any other company at the moment. The others seem to understand my need to be on my own, they don't seek me out and force their presence on me, they know that I'll come to them if I want company.

In a way I feel more comfortable living here than I ever did with the pack. We were a team, a unit, we would live and die together, we were friends, sometimes more than friends, but I was always an outsider. I couldn't shape-shift so I was never really one of them.

But living here in this house, it feels different. I can see why Alice and Rosalie call each other sisters even though they aren't blood relatives and taking Carlisle's surname as their own seems to symbolically bind the family together. Even Emmett is like the big brother none of us knew we wanted, well perhaps it's not quite the same for Rosalie. The four of us living here together it's not like flatmates its more like family.

I could never have dreamt that I would find myself trusting a bunch of vampires, which is why Alice's revelation this morning felt like such a betrayal.

We were all downstairs in various parts of the open plan area, when Alice dropped the vase. She had a far away look on her face and when I tried to speak to her it was as if she couldn't hear me at all she had completely zoned out in a trance.

Rosalie didn't seem overly concerned, as if it happened all the time, even Emmett seemed non-plussed.

When she snapped out of it she brushed off Rosalie's questions and looked straight at me. "Isabella, I need to talk to you. Can we go for a walk?"

We walked into the woods that surround the house until we came upon a small clearing created by some fallen trees.

"I have a confession," Alice stared earnestly at me. "I haven't been entirely honest with you. I haven't lied at such, just held out a little.

"What happened in the house, it happens a lot to me. I have visions, I see things that are going to happen. They don't always come true, it often depends on the decisions people see, I just see the outcome of the choices that they've made."

_It__'__s fairly arbitrary of course her visions can change as quickly as a persons mind. _That's what he had said.

"You're his sister! Edward is your brother isn't he?" With my instant clarity I saw how blindly stupid I had been. Emmett had even called him Eddie. They had all been lying to me. The real reason they didn't talk about him wasn't due to some family feud, they were hiding the truth, hiding the truth about _him_, from me.

"You have to understand I never wanted this. I saw you in the future as a vampire but I didn't want you to be changed like that. I thought perhaps if I could explain everything to you that you might choose…"

"I would never have chosen to be a vampire, nothing you could have said could have ever convinced me you have to know that." I snarl back at her, turning away and kicking out at the first object at hand; sending the splintering rock fragments spraying in ever direction whilst behind me Alice continued to make excuses.

"I know, I think deep down I always knew that what I had seen was the outcome of Edward's decision but I still didn't want it to happen to you like that. When I saw that he'd taken you hostage I wanted to come rescue you, but of course Edward knew that I would have seen and he purposefully kept changing his mind. He made the decision that if I or anyone else came to save you that he'd kill you before we reached you. I'm so sorry Isabella. You have to understand Edward's not really a bad person, he's …"

"I don't want to hear your excuses for him Alice." I cut her short spinning to face her again angrily. "I trusted you Alice but all this time you've been lying to me, you could have told me but you chose not to."

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to lose you, we need you Isabella. My visions have made it clear that there is a war coming, I'm trying to do all I can to prevent it but I'm not sure that's possible, so we have to make sure we are prepared when the time comes. I've been able to use my foresight of the vampires I see standing with us to gather support but of course the future I see can change if they choose not to join us. I've been seeing many vampires with abilities. You know that my brother can read minds, and perhaps you've come across other vampires in the past with powers. We have been trying to reach out to them and enlist their support. Its what Carlisle and Esme have been doing during their trip. I've seen you Isabella, you'll be key to our success. I couldn't risk us losing you. Without you I don't think that we'll stand a chance against them and if we lose the consequences for the human race will be catastrophic."

"But you're wrong I don't have an ability."

"We just haven't discovered it yet but I do believe you have one. We need you Isabella, we need you to stand with us."

"Why should I trust you? How do I know that this isn't just more lies?"

"I wont lie to you again. I know its inexcusable but I didn't want to risk scaring you off. If I had told you I was Edward's sister you never would have agreed to come with me and Rosalie. But I promise you, there will be no more secrets."

"I don't know Alice, I don't think I can stay here anymore, not now that I know you all lied to me."

"It wasn't like that, honestly, and this is bigger than you or me. There's a vampire called Maria, based in the South creating an army, she's convincing other covens to join with her and do you know what she's promising them? When she takes over the North she's offering them unlimited freedom to hunt. A complete reversal of the rules we lived under during the time of the Volturi. Once she takes complete control over North America she'll move on to Europe and from there the world. She plans on the complete subjugation of the human population; they'll be completely enslaved, herded and raised like cattle. I'm sorry I kept you in the dark about all this but, as a hunter, you have to see how important it is that we stop her. I need you. I'm certain I can't stop this without your help."

"I just… give me some time to think."

I'm not sure how long I sat in the woods on my own, thinking about all Alice had said and knowing there could only be one answer.

"Sorry Isabella," Rosalie said looking contrite.

"Yeah, we didn't do it to hurt you, honest." Emmett added.

I nodded. "Alice you can count me in, you have my support but anymore lies or secrets and I'm out of here."

"Thank you Isabella," she said skipping over to me and throwing her arms about me. Then holding me at arms length she announced. "Now we can go hunt."

* * *

_**What do you think? Did Bella give in and forgive Alice to quickly? Should Alice have told her earlier? Should Bella have just told Alice to go f herself?**_

_**A little bit of Jasper coming up next time.**_

_**And only a few more chapters until we get down to some good o'l smut. Can't believe I managed to get this far without any!**_

_**As always reviews and comments welcomed**_


	11. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

I guess I was naive to think Alice was announcing something as easy as a deer hunt in the local park, she had something much bigger planned for the four of us, we were hunting a vampire.

Which is why I now find myself in the front passenger seat of a luxury 7 seater SUV, speeding at twice the legal limit, somewhere just south of the Mexican border. Alice drives like a maniac but it's the rest of us who must be insane to have agreed to her plan because it has us heading towards the very centre of operations for the ever growing newborn army and the lunatic Maria who intends to use it to seize control of the continent.

Our journey so far has been a quiet one, no one it seems is in the mood for talking. Rosalie has spent most of the trip staring out the window in the seat behind mine and even Emmett, who is current stretched out across the rear row of seats watching a movie on the in-seat screen, has been uncharacteristically quiet. I wonder if they are as apprehensive as I am. We are all taking a huge gamble by putting our faith in the accuracy of Alice's prediction.

"I think this is as far as it's safe to go," Alice says after she pulls off and parks some distance up a side road under the cover of trees.

We follow her through the scrubby woods until we reach the cliff top; crawling on our bellies to the edge to look down on the valley below. What lies beneath us looks like a city of tents, it reminds me of one of those refugee camps you see on TV, beyond that are a couple of buildings that look like what's left of an old hacienda and a couple of tumbledown barns.

I can feel a ball of nervous excitement building in my stomach that I haven't experienced since my last hunt with the pack and I welcome its familiarity. It's the closest I've felt to being myself, to feeling almost alive, since I woke up in that shack.

I only wish I had my father's old hunting jacket but the others had screwed up their noses in disgust. Rosalie flat out refusing to share a car with it. "For once I've got to agree with blondie, that thing has got to go," Emmett had added unapologetically. Alice had been more tactfully sympathetic but no less resolute. "Sorry but they're right we just can't risk the chance of one of them catching a whiff of werewolf and setting the whole camp on alert." They had a valid complaint, it did stink of dog. I'd hoped it just needed an airing but the result of decades of hanging around wolves meant that their scent was deeply entrenched in its leather.

So the coat had been left at home but nothing could stop me from bringing my weapons, my concession being to bathe them in bleach to kill any odours, and it felt comfortingly natural to have the axe strapped to my leg once again. Even though Emmett said the '_things_' seriously creeped him out.

"That's the one. That barn over there." Alice says pointing to the dilapidated red roofed building furthest from the camp. "That's where he will be tonight."

There is no obvious way of getting to it without crossing a wide expanse of open ground if we want to avoid walking right through the middle of the camp. Either way we risk exposure.

We sit tight and wait for night fall, refraining from moving or talking to minimise the chance of being spotted. As we wait we watch the camp members. There seems to be very little order with several fights breaking out over the course of the day, at least two resulting in deaths but no one seems to pay much attention so I presume it is an everyday occurrence, nothing out of the ordinary for them.

One of the bodies is thrown on a fire but the other lays discarded, twitching searching for it's missing parts. I wonder if it took a long time for Edward's head to reconnect with his body and whether it hurt. I hope it did.

Instinctively I find myself scanning the landscape and, without making an actual conscious decision to do so, I begin mentally mapping out the best route to the red roofed barn. When dusk falls it becomes clear we're each waiting for someone else to give the go ahead. With the absence of an obvious alpha I take the initiative, signalling to the others and we creep further along the cliff top travelling away from the camp and circling back around behind it until we were a safe distance away to leap from the cliff undetected. Dropping one after another we land silently at its foot, keeping watch all the time. The problem with being this far away from the camp is that although we're hidden from the army, neither can we clearly see what they are doing.

We have to double back on ourselves to reach the camp moving fast and silently. I shouldn't be shocked, after all he is a vampire, but I'm still surprised how agile a big guy like Emmett is.

I spot them first. Two vampires, presumably guarding the camp's perimeter, perched on a crop of flat rocks playing cards and quarrelling over their last hand. They're too distracted to notice us but I know we only have a matter of seconds before they become aware of our presence. It's possible that if these two sentries call out the camp will hear them and be alerted to attack.

Taking up my axe and dagger in either hand I throw them simultaneously. I hardly have to think about the trajectory or aim both weapons finding their intended targets with smooth precision. I've never been able to throw them with such force or accuracy before and I feel a thrill at seeing their true potential for the first time. The axe slices through the first vampire's neck like a hot knife through butter, his companion having little time to react to the sight of his friend's head falling to the ground before my dagger sinks deep into his throat. It's not enough to kill him but it gives Alice, who seems to be one step ahead of the others perhaps having seen my decision to strike, enough time to leap on him and with her knees bracing either side of his chest she rips the bone dagger across his neck hacking his head from his body.

We hesitate only long enough for Emmett to toss both heads with herculean force as far as he can, and then we take off sprinting at top speed. We reach the barn without further detection but I don't know how long we have until the guards are missed. Climbing up to the hay loft we hide in the shadows having no choice but to wait.

The moon is high in the sky when we hear the two males approach the barn. "Peter…" the first one starts but he is cut short by his younger companion.

"Don't Jasper," he says shaking his head. "I know why you've brought me here. I messed up I let them escape and I know Maria doesn't tolerate mistakes. Let's just… just do it okay. I'm not going to fight you I've had enough fighting for a lifetime." He turns his back on his companion facing out the barn door to look up at the moon.

I see the one called Jasper close his eyes and take a deep breath, when he opens them again they are dark and soulless, an ugly expression twisting his face. For a second I'm worried he has picked up our scent but he turns instead to where Peter waits for him. Jasper places his hands on Peter's shoulders, his upper lip curling back to expose his pearly teeth in the moonlight, inclining his head towards Peter's neck. I freeze in horror expecting Jasper to rip into the younger vampire's neck but with a sudden jerk his mouth moves to the boy's ear and whispers hoarsely. "Run!"

Peter disappears into the night without once looking back.

Before I have a chance to stop her Alice springs from the loft, landing softly a few feet behind Jasper. Rosalie, Emmett and I all fly to our feet but without bothering to look at us Alice simply raises her hand to halt us from joining her. In the same instant Jasper whirls round with a snarl, baring his teeth.

"Hello Jasper," she says in her cheery singsong voice, "it feels like I've been waiting forever to find you."

The snarl falls from his stunned face as she continues.

"Its all right," Alice laughs airily, "no need to be confused. You just haven't felt this emotion in anyone for a long time have you?" She laughs again a wide smile spreading across her face. "Its love Jasper and it's all right you're going to love me right back. In fact in about thirteen months and two days from now you're going to ask me to marry you. Although," she grins cheekily, "there is a possibility that you might not be able to wait that long."

The rest of us join Jasper in staring at her dumbfounded.

"I know you're not happy here Jasper. You haven't been for a long time. If you come with us, we can show you another way, one that isn't filled with hate and murder."

Jasper looks up at where the three of us still stand in the hayloft and Emmett takes a step forward to place himself in front of Rosalie and I.

"Well Jasper?" Alice prompts. "It's not polite to leave a lady waiting, you know." And she holds out her hand to him.

"I…" He contemplates her outstretched hand for a moment before taking it, staring at their joined hands before looking up to her face with a bewildered half smile. "My apologies, ma'am. It wont happen again."

Alice beams back at him, before impatiently directing her next comment at the rest of us. "Well come on then. Let's go."

The return journey is almost as quiet as the one out. From the looks on Rosalie and Emmett's faces I think they are just as confused about what has just happened as I am. For me it also felt hugely anticlimactic, I'm used to a hunt building up to a fight but this ended all too frustratingly easy to give any lasting satisfaction.

I tell Alice so when we stop for gas. Emmett and Rosalie are inside paying and making a show of being human by using the restroom and buying gum and snacks. Jasper is safely locked in the vehicle so that he won't be tempted to find a snack of his own and I notice Alice is keeping a very close eye on me as we lean against the side of the SUV.

"So that's it then Alice? We just drive down to Mexico pick this guy up and drive back?"

She smiles and shrugs.

"I don't get it why did you need us all to come with you?"

"Well," Alice says shifting a little awkwardly and avoiding my eye, looking over to where Rosalie and Emmett are now paying for their goods. "I wasn't sure it was going to be that easy. I kept seeing two different outcomes. The alternative one was going to be a bit messier and required some back up."

"Alice! You told us you saw him agreeing to come with us!"

"I did! _Most_ of the time." She says cringing a little at her admission. "Anyway he's here now." She smiles at where Jasper sits stone still in the car, eyes closed and at a guess not breathing. I get the feeling adapting to the Cullen's chosen way of life is going to be tough for him.

"Did you mean it, what you said? Have you really seen the two of you getting married?"

She grins impishly. "Of course. How could he resist?"

When we arrive back at the house, Rosalie drags Alice off for a talk. They wander into the woods out of earshot but I presume what takes place is a pretty heated discussion about what had just gone down in Mexico and our new house mate. Rosalie has a face like thunder when she storms back toward the house but Alice looks completely unfazed. Whatever Rosalie said doesn't seem to have to dented Alice's optimistic faith in her vision that the ex-righthand man of a psycho bitch hellbent on taking over America (and then possibly the world) is set to be her future husband. Jasper is literally the man of her dreams.

Rosalie stomps off to her room where the furious sound of knitting can soon be heard, Emmett announces he's had enough of all the drama and that he's going to find himself a grizzly to torment and Alice and Jasper disappear to her room.

Which leaves me alone.

I play some music, try to read but end up lying on the couch eyes closed pretending I can sleep. It's rude to listen to Alice and Jasper's conversation but at the same time they must be aware that every vampire in the house can overhear them.

Alice explains her visions to Jasper, what she's seen of the war and the devastation it will bring to the world. She confesses that she's seen him not just as her husband but as a military leader who can train us and shape the hotchpotch collection of vampires she has convinced to join her into a force to stand against the invading army.

He in turn tells her of his life with Maria and how she first selected him. In 1991 Jasper had been returned from Iraq to a military hospital in the states with head injuries but his condition had quickly deteriorated. He suspects he was exactly what Maria was looking for; a young soldier, someone decorated, with a proven record as an effective leader to organise her troops although when he woke as a vampire she had painted a different picture. Expressing her desire to save him and how from the very first moment she saw him she knew she wanted to share her life with him.

Initial she had made him feel special and wanted, she always told him she had chosen him to be her mate but something never quite felt right. It felt as if she valued his skills as an army officer and a leader more than his personal qualities. At first he put it down to the confusing transition of tackling life as a newborn but over time it became very clear that his initial doubts were justly founded and that she had other objectives.

Under the pretence of guiding and instructing him for his own protection as a newborn, Maria often spoke about the dangers of other covens, warning that these other vampires would be jealous of what they had together and that they could try to attack them. She told him that it was common for feuds between different factions of vampires to spring up over night unprovoked.

First Maria convinced him that they needed other vampires as protection, so she created some more newborns, calling them their new family. Then she told him that she was afraid of the nearest coven, that it posed too much of a threat. Jasper wanted to protect Maria and spurred on by her fears he took the growing number of new-borns she had created and trained them to fight. They were easily able to crush the neighbouring coven.

For a while Maria was happy but it wasn't long until once again she told him she was scared, she had heard more rumours of another threat, that another coven wanted to take over their territory and prevent them from feeding in the area. More newborns were created. Under Jasper's leadership and Maria's guidance another coven was destroyed. As time went on he realised there was always another coven Maria perceived to be threatening, another battle to prepare for, instead of fighting to regain peace they were just constantly fighting. More and more newborns were created until they were no longer an extended family but an army. Newborns only being allowed to survive if they were successful fighters. If they were seen to have any weaknesses Jasper was instructed to dispose of them and every of their deaths took a toll on him.

He had discovered soon after he'd woken up to his new life as a vampire that he had the ability to both feel and manipulate others emotions. Each time he had to kill he suffered the crippling sensation of his victim's fear and agony.

Jasper thought it would all be over once they gained control of the South, but when they had finally destroyed all the covens except those that agreed to follow her leadership Maria still wasn't satisfied; she wanted more. She viewed the north american vampires as disorganised groups with no clear leadership or cohesion that could be easily picked off. Their territory she claimed was ripe for the picking.

Jasper was no longer under an illusion that Maria loved him, many times over the years her careful facade had slipped enough to show her true feelings. He felt her suspicion of him and her mistrust of the powerful position he held as commander of her ever growing army. He feared that it was only a matter of time until Maria's distrust lead her to remove him just as she had all the other previous threats that had stood in her way. Part of him didn't care. He welcomed the end. The constant barrage of desperate and angry emotions that surrounded him on daily basis had turned him cold and dark. He hardly recognised the monster he was as being the same man Maria had selected all those years ago, she had taken a soldier and turned him into the ultimate weapon. He was surprised by his own actions when he let Peter go, but he didn't want to feel the pain and desolation of the young vampire who had given up and resigned himself to being executed. He didn't want the murder on his hands. Jasper had had enough of death.

"I'm sorry," Alice apologises sincerely, "I've dragged you from one war to another."

"No," Jasper responds quietly, "you've given me a reason not to give up."

They discuss the Cullen's decision to live on animal blood, Jasper actively listening and asking questions about their chosen lifestyle. He's realistically sceptical about his ability to curb his current appetite but he's willing to attempt it, keen to escape the fear and pain he absorbs from his human victims.

Their conversation flows on comfortably, the two of them so perfectly at ease with each other you'd never believe that less that 48 hours ago they hadn't even met.

I pull on some head phones playing my music loud enough to drown out any further conversation. I have listened enough for one evening and they deserve some privacy.

Lying in the dark, staring up at the ceiling I am filled with a bitter melancholic sense of envy. I can't imagine ever finding someone I'll feel as in tune with as Alice and Jasper seem to be but the thought of spending the rest of this long existence alone is so desperate I cannot bear to think about it.

Dragging myself from the darkness of my self-pity I head out to the woods to hunt.

Perhaps in the morning I will dare to ask Alice whether she can see anyone in my future, but then again perhaps its best not to know.

* * *

**_Sorry it took a long to finish this chapter but real life sometimes gets in the way. Still can't say I'm very happy with this chapter but I've been staring at it for too long now and so I'm just going to post it. Its a bit of a just getting us to the next part chapter which I promise holds a little more excitement. _**


	12. Chapter Ten Part One

**Chapter Ten Part One**

Emmett returns sometime just before dawn and Alice immediately calls a house meeting.

"Jasper is going to help us get into shape." She states proudly.

I raise my eyebrows at her announcement, I'm pretty sure I've never been in such good shape before - you know considering I'm dead and all. The same thought obviously crosses Emmett's mind as he makes a show of flexing his biceps, taking the opportunity to wink at Rosalie at the same time. She rolls her eyes and looks away unimpressed.

"What I mean," Alice continues, "is that Jasper is going to shape us into an army. He's going to show us how to fight so that when the others get here we can help to train them."

"No offence mate," Emmett dismisses, "but I already know how to fight."

"I'm sure you do," Jasper replies, "but fighting newborns is something entirely different. Vampires are at their strongest during the period that their own blood is still in their system. Take Isabella here, Alice tells me you're less that three months old." I frown unhappy with being described like .

"It might not look like it but Isabella here is much stronger than you. And if you don't learn how to defend yourself and take the correct offensive she would easily over power you."

"No way!" Emmett laughs. "There is absolutely no way half pint here could get the better of me."

"There's only one way to find out isn't there?" I say sending him a challenging look. There is no way I am going to miss the chance of trumping Emmett, the mileage I could get taking the piss out of him for months if I win is definitely worth the risk of ending up looking an idiot if I lose instead.

"I'd pay good money to see Emmett getting beaten by Isabella." Rosalie chimes in, although the smirk on her face is short lived.

"Hell Rosie, if I'd know that was the kind of kinky shit you were into I'd have suggested it a long time ago. You know you can come and beat me anytime you want."

Rosalie makes a disgusted noise and struts out of the kitchen to the front lawn leaving Emmett chuckling behind her.

"I don't know what you're laughing about," Alice interrupts Emmett's amusement. "You've been here six months and the only one who's been beating _that_ off is yourself. Oh don't look so surprised," she continues. "Our en-suites have adjoining walls, don't think I can't hear _everything_ even over the noise of the running water."

Emmett chokes on his own swallow and Alice sashays after Rosalie with a smug look on her face.

I shrug at Jasper with a _don__'__t ask me_ expression and we follow the girls out of the house.

Once we are all gathered on the lawn, Jasper asks Emmett and I to give a quick demonstration of what he was talking about before. Although the idea of kicking Emmett's ass is appealing I can't say I'm as confident about my strength as Jasper appears to be.

Emmett and I stand at either end of the lawn and when Jasper gives the word we charge at each other. I throw my shoulder into Emmett as we connect and I feel his weight give, I instantly use his momentum to my advantage grabbing him and continuing the movement up and over my shoulder throwing him onto the ground behind me.

There is a whoop of delight and a call of "Go girl!" from the onlookers whilst I do a cocky little victory dance over to where Emmett lies.

"Shit." Is all he says shaking his head as he looks up at me. He takes my hand and lets me pull him to his feet. "Well, small fry I definitely underestimated you," he concedes taking his defeat with good grace.

"They always do," I grin back.

"Yeah, but when all that newborn blood is out of your system I want a rematch," he laughs and I bat his hand away as he ruffles my hair.

Jasper uses my victory to drive his point home about the dangers of underestimating the strength of newborns. He goes on to demonstrate, using Alice as a partner, the moves and the areas of the body we should target. He lets Alice repeatedly over-power and floor him. It's beginning to look like they are enjoying it little too much and if it weren't for the fact that I find Jasper so intimidating I might tell them to go get a room.

Finally they break it up and Jasper says its time for Rosalie and Emmett to give it a try.

"Why don't I fight with Isabella," Rosalie suggests quickly. "She's a newborn why don't I practice on her."

"I want you and Emmett to get a handle on the moves first and this is the best way for you both to get some practice," Jasper responds in a very final tone.

She huffs but takes her place on one side of the lawn.

"Don't hold out on me Rosie," Emmett calls, "give me everything you've got girl."

"Don't call me Rosie," she snarls as she rushes at him.

An almighty crack fills the air as their bodies meet. Despite what he said I get the feeling Emmett is the one holding back and he looks shocked by the ferocity of Rosalie's attack.

Their arms move in a rapid blur, Emmett blocking Rosalie's blows. It is almost too quick to see exactly what is happening. One moment they are fighting and the next she is flying, having been thrown backwards across the lawn.

"Fuck! You bit me woman!" Emmett cries rubbing his forearm.

But Rosalie doesn't respond, she is already back on her feet and sprinting toward him again. Her attack catches him off guard and she knocks him flat on his back. Her knees holding his biceps down she takes hold of his head and I honestly believe she is about to rip his head off when he flips her and the next second she is beneath him. His hands holding hers above her head, his hips straddling hers. She growls and snarls as she tries to free herself but he has her pinned immobile.

"Come on Rosie baby, don't be so angry. When was the last chance you had to feel a man between your legs?" He quips sarcastically.

Alice gasps, a look of pain passes over Rosalie's face, Emmett releases her hands, Rosalie tosses him aside and runs for the woods with Emmett closely on her heels.

"Should… should we go after them?" I ask stunned and unsure what just happened.

Alice doesn't respond. She has that far off look she gets whenever she has a vision. It only lasts a moment before she snaps out of it shaking the daze from her head.

"Alice?" She turns to look at me. "Should we go after Rosalie and Emmett?" I repeat.

She shakes her head. "No, its about time they worked it out."

* * *

_**I know this is kind of short but its really just an intro to the next part. I did initially consider posting these two as outtakes to the story as they are very indulgently Rosalie and Emmett based because basically I love those two. I think I should have just written a RxE story really. But after these two chapters they take a back seat in the story again and we move on to Edward and Bella.**_


	13. Chapter Ten Part Two

_**Authors note: Okay if Emmett and Rosalie aren't really your thing you'd better look away now. I did consider posting this as an outtake but decided to keep it in. After this E&R step back into the background of the story but before they do I thought I'd let them indulge in a little smut filled chapter all of their own...**_

**Chapter Ten Part Two**

**Emmett POV**

Ow! She bit me! I can't believe that mad woman bit me!

Rubbing my arm where the sting of her venom can be felt, I'm pissed to realise its going to leave a scar. The last thing I want is to end up looking like Jasper, that dude is seriously marked, he must have seen a scary amount of action to end up like that.

I look in the direction I threw Rosalie, I hadn't meant to be so forceful but then I hadn't been expecting her to sink her teeth in either. Instead of finding her lying where she landed I see her already charging directly at me. There's no time to defend myself and she hits me with the full force of her anger sending me flying on to my back.

Shit she's like a devil possessed and she certainly knows how to handle herself, worryingly this seems to turn me on.

I'm dragged back from my distracting thoughts when she quickly takes advantage of my lack of concentration. She pins my arms to the ground with her knees, her groin right up in my face and my thoughts instantly head south again. Damn! What I wouldn't give to have her in this position in any other situation but right now I get the feeling she really means business and there is no way in hell I'm going to end up like Edward and let some broad rip my head off.

Rosalie has my arms pinned but by arching my back and thrusting upwards with my hips I easily toss her weight aside. In a fraction of a second I'm over her, trapping her hands out the way to save me from getting on the end of another of her mean right hooks and holding her in place with the weight of my body. She's right there under me. How many times have I imagined us in a very similar position whilst taking care of myself in the shower? Hell I think I've fantasised my way through her and I in every position in the Kama Sutra. I'm fighting a losing battle against my body's reaction to her and if I were to move just a fraction of an inch she'd feel it. God this woman drives me crazy, what I wouldn't give for any one of those fantasies to be real but Rosalie made her mind up about me a long time ago and I've been way too much of a douche since then for her to change her view now.

So I resort to doing what I always do to distance myself from the reality that a smart sharp-witted woman like her will never be interested in a thick skulled neanderthal like me, I act like I don't care by cracking a joke about something I know will annoy the hell out of her.

"Come on Rosie baby," I say knowing how the pet name makes her mad. "Don't be so angry. When was the last chance you had to feel a man between your legs?"

She doesn't need to have her hands free, the look on her face slaps the smile straight off of mine. I hear Alice's sharp intake of breath in response to what I've said and it all suddenly seems to fall into place.

I knew it was an act this cold hard bitch front she puts up, I just didn't know why. I presumed it was for the same reason I play the hick fool, just conforming to what people expect me to be but I see now that I was wrong. Rosalie's is an armour, she hides behind the persona as protection.

I release her arms immediately, the shame of what I've said and the position I've forced her into making me feel sick.

She shoves me aside and flies into the trees, before I'm even on my feet.

"Rosalie, stop!" I dive into the woods without a second thought. "Please Rosalie stop." She doesn't of course she just keeps running and that girl is fast. "I'm sorry," I call out after her, "I'm so sorry."

We just keep running, winding through the trees heading north towards the mountains.

"Leave me alone," she spits back at me at one point, her voice thick with emotion but I just keep on after her. "I'll chase you all the way up and over to Greenland if I have to, but I'm not going to give up."

I don't expect her to either so I'm surprised when she comes to a sudden halt. She's chosen a breathtaking spot on a peak looking out over a long stretch of water below us.

"Rosie I'm sorry…"

"Don't call me that! Never call me that! That's what he always called me…its what he called me when…"

She doesn't finish her sentence instead cleaving off a hunk from the rock face and hurling the boulder with all her might toward the lake below. We watch the splash of water it throws up and the ever increasing concentric circles that radiate out from the spot sending waves to crash against the lake shore, until they finally cease and the surface is calm again.

"I'm sorry Rose," I try again, "I'm a dick. I didn't know, I didn't think. I'd … I want you to know I'd never hurt you."

She turns to look at me then. If we vampires could shed tears they would be streaming down her face but instead her shoulders heave and her chest rises and falls with ragged breaths without the satisfaction of a true release. I step forward closing the distance between us, but I don't dare to wrap the comforting arms around her that I really want to.

She drops her head letting her forehead fall to my chest, her shoulders slumping as she lets out the last of the fight in a shuddering sigh.

I do pull her into my arms then, bringing us both down to the ground to sit. Rosalie with her legs across my lap her head resting on my chest as I cradle her in a loose embrace. We just sit like that for who knows how long, her letting out the burden of sorrow, anger and frustration that she's been carrying about in broken sobs and me just looking out over the lake and tree tops as the sky darkens and then eventually lightens again.

As the sky warms with the glow of the new morning, Rosalie lifts her head from my shoulder and looks at me and says as if simply continuing our last conversation. "I like it when you call me Rose."

I attempt to contain my smile, but it spreads across my face growing into a wide grin anyway. I'm glad I fail to suppress it because it makes her laugh. Just a gentle breath of a laugh and although it's accompanied by merely the faintest promise of a smile it is still the most glorious thing I've seen in a long while.

"I swear I'm going to make you laugh everyday, for the rest of my life," I resolutely declare. "What? I'm serious," I say in response to her dubious expression. "I'm making it my mission from here on. You're by far the most beautiful thing I've ever seen when you laugh. It's a crime to keep it from the world." And despite the lightness of my tone I hope she understands I'm completely serious.

"You are so full of it Emmett McCarty." She says shaking her head at me but there's no hint of contempt in her voice. "Besides what makes you think you'll be able to? I've heard your jokes and you're really not that funny."

I feign hurt from her insult and am rewarded with another smile.

"I mean it though Rose. I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever met, why the hell do you think I've stuck around so long and forced myself onto this unnatural vegetarian diet of your family. I sure as hell wouldn't do it for anyone but you. I'm just sorry I was such an ass to you."

"I wasn't exactly nice to you either."

I shrug it off.

"And I really am sorry about your arm." Her fingers drawing back the sleeve of my shirt to trace the outline her bite has left on my forearm. I'm immediately disappointed at the loss of her delicate touch when she puts her hands back in her lap and I find myself falling back on my usual defence of using humour as detraction.

"I'll survive, if I was going to get bitten I'm glad it was by you and not Jasper. But you know, we didn't have to go through the whole ruse of fighting in order for you to put your mark on me. I already knew how much you wanted this," I say indicating to my body. "If you wanted to brand me and let the other bitches know you'd already claimed me you could have just asked."

Rosalie narrows her eyes at me, "You know I think I like you better when you're not talking."

"What you going to do about that?" I ask flashing her my most charmingly boyish grin and hoping for a favourable response.

"This," and she kisses me. _Hell yeah, that__'__s ex-actly what I wanted._

It's sweet and slow and I make no attempt to deepen it, I'm more than happy to let Rosalie run this show completely.

"Don't hold out on me Emmett," she teases softly mimicking my own words, "give me everything you've got."

When she kisses me again, I let my hands snake into the silken length of her hair, holding her to me as I part her lips. I finally kiss her the way I've wanted to since the first time I saw her, leaving her with absolutely no question of how much I want her. When I pull away, her eyes are still closed and I watch as the pink tip of her tongue slowly ventures out to taste her lips. When she opens her eyes they hold the same level of burning intensity I witnessed during our fight.

"How about we take this to somewhere we're a little less likely to take a dive head first off the cliff." I suggest, reluctant to move in case the moment is lost but wanting the ability to continue this properly if I'm lucky enough to be given the opportunity.

I pull her to her feet and we run back down the mountainside the way we came. She takes off racing ahead, faster than I am I find myself chasing her again. Only this time as she calls back over her shoulder taunting my slow pace, her golden mane flowing out behind her, she isn't trying to escape and I really don't mind the view from this angle either.

When she comes to a stop in a clearing near the foot of the mountain she is grinning, elated by the chase and her victory. I'm still hesitant as I step toward her though, certain she'll regain her senses at any moment and tell me to stop. But she doesn't. There is no doubt in her eyes as I pull her into my arms and she wind hers about my neck guiding my mouth back to hers.

Perhaps it's the rush of the speed we've just experienced, but our hands and lips take on a new urgent level of energy. Her fingers tugging at my hair, her teeth teasing my bottom lip as my hands find a home on her hips holding her firmly against me, wanting her to know my body's reaction to her this time.

Her fingers find the edge of my shirt and I raise my arms to let her lift it off and over my head. The tip of her tongue absent mindedly wetting her lower lip again as her gaze of appreciation travels across my upper body. The flat of her hands spreading out over my chest before sliding down my arms to stretch her fingers as far around my upper arms as they will go.

"I knew you'd been looking." I tease, flexing my muscles and making her fingers jump.

"I don't think I ever denied that I had." She retorts with a devious grin.

Her fingers move back over my torso, downwards until she reaches the waist of my jeans, her fingers coming to a rest on the button.

"Rose, we don't have to." I don't want to rush this. I want her, hell I really want her, but I don't want this to be something she does in the heat of the moment and then regrets later.

With a smile she raises one finger placing it on my lips. "I think we decided it was better if you didn't talk."

With steady fingers she pops the button and releases the zipper. Her hand slipping inside my shorts to take me in her fist. I let out a deep growl and she finds her back suddenly pressed up against the trunk of a tree that had stood a few feet behind her. She lets out a gasp of surprise and I'm about to apologise when she silences me with a kiss.

I palm her prime luscious ass before hitching one of her legs up and around my own so that I can settle between her thighs. Her hand is still on me and I rock my hips thrusting into her grip. I want nothing more than to rip away the barrier of clothing that stands between us and take her right here against the tree but I don't want this to come across as a quick meaningless fuck. With a pained groan I take a step back from her. A look of surprised rejection flashes across her face and I realise I've made a mistake. I act quickly, unable to think of anything better, I kick off my shoes and shed the rest of my clothes. Standing bare and vulnerable before her I only hope she decides to follow suit.

Stepping away from the tree she pulls her thin sweater over her head. Then ridding herself of her shoes she slips out of her jeans.

A deep low growl rumbles from my chest at the sight of her in only underwear, she is beyond perfect. I take my time appreciating the fullness of her hourglass figure and the long legs that I can't wait to feel wrapped about me.

"Tell me Emmett," she says drawing my attention from her body to her face only to travel back down again as she brings her hands behind her to unfasten her bra. "What exactly does Alice hear in the shower?"

I'm sure a look of panic shoots across my face.

"What is it that you're thinking about?" She repeats, holding the now unfastened bra in place preventing it from falling by covering her still clothed breasts with her hands. Slightly squeezing and pushing her breasts together as she does.

I swallow thickly too dumbstruck to think of anything else but confess, "You."

"Tell me _exactly_ what you think about." She probes dropping her bra to the carpet of pine needles that covers the forest floor.

"I think about you and me." I answer, finding it hard to string a sentence together as my concentration darts between her full ripe breasts and the way she sways her hips slightly as she starts to wriggle out of her panties.

"What about you and me Emmett?" She says stopping the progress of her underwear and looking at me expectantly.

"I…I think about how much I want you." She still doesn't resume undressing, letting me know she doesn't find my answer satisfactory. "I think about you in the shower with me. Running my hands over your dripping body, my fingers slipping inside you, parting you so I can taste you, hearing you scream my name, feeling your hot wet mouth around me, sinking inside you and calling out your name when I come. Alice hears me moaning your name everyday in the shower."

Instead of continuing to remove her underwear, as I speak Rosalie's fingers slip beneath the sheer material and I watch in lustfilled awe as she begins to work them over herself.

"Sometimes when I'm alone I think of you like this." She whispers in confession as she grinds against her own hand.

The thin material of her underwear gives way easily as I rip it from her and she is beneath me before I even finish my exclaim of "Fuck!"

My hard length finds the slick hot flesh between her legs and I let myself ride against her a few times causing her breath to hitch and her fingers to tighten on my shoulders.

I pull back afraid that I've rushed her, I don't want to fuck this up, I don't know if this will be my only chance with Rosalie and I want to savour every last minute. Slowing my pace I kiss my way from her lips, down her neck to her shoulders until I'm level with her breasts but I don't take their tight pink peaks between my teeth just yet. I let my fingers trace the soft swell of her breasts in feather light soft strokes before letting my thumb brush over each nipple. She lets her breath rush between her parted lips and her hips rock searching for relief but I have already pulled too far away for her to find the friction she desires.

I might not be the smartest or the quickest, I don't have any particular special power like some vampires, but I do know women. And I am damn well going to make sure Rosalie Cullen learns the full extent of my ability.

I let my hands run down her sides appreciating the curve of her waist before enjoying the rise of her hips. Letting my hands encase the full flesh of her hips and ass, before continuing my journey across the gentle rise of her stomach and then to the front of her thighs letting my fingers stroke inwards and upwards moving back up her body. I let just my thumbs brush through the damp curls at the apex of her thighs, slightly parting her and testing the slick skin that lays concealed there.

She tries to press into my touch but I move onwards, back up her body to her breasts again. Marvelling at how perfectly she fills the wide expanse of my hand as I cup her. I'm tempted to tell her that it feels like she's made for me but I don't want to risk ruining this with a cheesy line, even if it is the truth.

Squeezing her I bring one hardened peak to my mouth, testing how rough she wants it with my lips, tongue and then teeth. She grips my hair, holding me to her as she wantonly moans in encouragement.

I set a trail across her skin with my tongue, travelling down around her navel to her centre. Parting her thighs to lift one leg over my shoulder letting the other drop out to the side so that I can fully appreciate the sight of her glistening with arousal, letting the scent of her fill my senses before I let the flat of my tongue run the length of her.

The sound of my name falling from her lips as I repeat the action again and again is almost enough to end me right there and then.

Her hands try to find a hold on my shoulders and then my arms but slip to the ground her fingers clawing in the dirt before she finally gains a satisfactory grip on my hair as she rocks with me and against me as I work her with my mouth.

I let myself learn the sounds of her body. The moan as I lick the length of her folds, her gasp as my tongue swirls and dips inside her, her increasingly heavy breath building to a groan, her cry of pleasure as my hand finds its way back to her breast twisting and teasing her nipple between my fingers. I relish the sound of her desperate pleas for more as I take her first between my lips to suck and then my teeth to gently bite at her clit. Bringing her ever closer and closer to the edge until she screams out my name into the silence of the woods.

Wiping my mouth on the back of my hand I bring her taste back to her mouth and she receives it greedily as our tongues work in tandem.

Again my length slips against her slick heat.

"You'll be my first," she says looking up at me. "In this life you're the only one."

_I__'__m __hoping __to be your only one._ I watch the sweet smile spread across her face.

"Shit! I said that out loud didn't I?" I laugh awkwardly to cover my mortification.

She laughs at me but her smile is an indulgent one as she responds, "It's okay, _sometimes_ I like the things you say."

"Are you sure though? Is this really what you want? I'll understand if you don't…" Once again she places a finger to my lips to stop me and she simply nods. Although I meant what I said I thank god she doesn't actually want to stop. "OK I'll just… I'll go slow, I'll be as gentle as I can."

"Don't you dare even think about being anything but yourself Emmett McCarty!" She warns in a feisty tone.

I bring my lips back to hers and kiss her sweetly but she makes it clear it is definitely not enough for her. Her fingers weave their way into the curls at the nape of my neck and hold me fast as her lips and tongue become increasingly dominant.

My hips rock instinctively against her, sliding once more against her where I can feel she is wet and ready for me, and as I do so her nails dig into my ass pulling my weight to her and I enter her with a thrust.

I curse myself, I'd meant to take it slow not rush her like the great oaf I am trying to convince her I'm not. But fuck its never felt this good before.

Her nails dig into my hard flesh again urging me on, "Now is not the time to hold back McCarty."

_I think, no scratch that, hell I know I'm in love with this girl._

The forest is filled with our sounds. The echo as our bodies connect, skin on skin, reverently exclaiming each other's names with needy pleas and grateful affirmations. It isn't slow and it damn well isn't gentle.

There is no end, as one need is satisfied another is building to replace it, so that we take and take from each other giving everything we have.

Eventually we lay our bodies still conjoined, limbs twisted and entwined, looking up at the night sky through the branches of the trees. Laying amidst the aftermath of the destruction that we've inflicted on the site about us. We are surrounded by felled and uprooted trees, deep ruts formed in the forest floor and a boulder almost ground to dust in the course of our endeavours.

"My real name is Rosalie Hale," she says breaking the silence and turning to look up at me. "It's not Rosalie Cullen. Carlisle found me after they used me and left me for dead, he changed me and I took his surname when I joined the family. I didn't want to be saved, I was ready to die. I've always hated the empty pointlessness of this life, it's not one I would have chosen."

I look into her sad eyes getting the feeling this is the point where she tells me that this, us together, hasn't meant anything other than what it was. Just a one off occasion to get the past out of her system and that she isn't interested in anything more from someone like me.

"I used to think," she says resting her palm against my cheek, "that I just hadn't found the right reason for living, I tried to fill my life up with hobbies and good causes looking for what was missing. But I think I was wrong, without knowing it what I was waiting for all that time was the right _person_ to want to live for."

She brushes her lips gently against mine and I tighten my embrace around her in response.

"I think I might be falling in love with you Emmett McCarty."

I know I'm beaming like a fool at her as I return the declaration but I'm not embarrassed. "I'm pretty sure I'm already in love with you Rosalie Hale or Cullen, whichever you want me to call you."

"You can call me whatever you prefer."

My grin turns into a sly smile as I respond, "Well in that case, I think Rose McCarty sounds pretty damn good."

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_**This was a bit of a rushed job so I apologise if there are even more grammar mistakes than usual. I'm away for much of this week so not sure when I'm going to get round to updating again.**_


	14. Chapter Eleven

_**OK this might be the chapter some of you have been waiting for, I hope it doesn't disappoint and that you weren't expecting a nice warm fluffy reunion!**_

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**Chapter Eleven**

Bella's POV

I've never seen Rosalie like this before.

The woman walking across the lawn towards the house is definitely not the one I saw disappearing into the trees two days ago.

The Rosalie that I've come to know is always immaculate, her appearance never less than flawless from top to toe. Hardly a hair out of place not even after a hunt but here she is, her hair all mussed up even a few pine needles and leaves wedged in it, her shirt ripped at the collar and mud on her trousers. And what's more she looks like she couldn't care less.

I watch with amazement as Emmett bends to whisper something in her ear. It's too low for me to hear whatever it is that causes her scowl, but I can clearly see that it's not her normal look of disdain, this is something different it has a playful edge to it. I stare as she bumps his hip with her own making him stumble and then shakes her head at him laughing.

He is too, his wonderful booming laugh rolling out across the open space of the lawn. It's still unexpected though, when he slips his arm round her waist pulling her back to his side. Her own arm slides easily around him, seemingly slipping into his back pocket and causing him to give a little jump. He turns to her with an exaggerated look of wounded shock to which she retorts, "Hey don't dish it out if you can't take it McCarty."

Am I imagining things or did Rosalie Cullen just pinch Emmett's ass?

Perhaps I should have seen this coming, after all those years of witnessing the chemistry of Leah and Jake's aggressive sexual tension you would have thought I'd have recognised the signs but honestly I thought Rosalie hated Emmett. No wonder Alice has dismissed all my concerns about their disappearance over the last two days. I bet _she_ saw all this coming in one of her freaky little dreams.

The last couple of days Alice has been far too busy to worry about Rosalie and Emmett, completely engrossed in contacting all of the vampires she has recruited to her side since she started having premonitions about the future war. She's been telling everyone that its time. She honestly believes that Jasper can mould us all into some sort of an army. I certainly hope she's got a whole load of vamps coming because after seeing the size of the force that mad bitch Maria has assembled we are going to need all the help we can get.

Rosalie and Emmett are just walking through the door when Alice comes flying downstairs.

"Isabella! I'm so sorry, I would have warned you, he wasn't going to come, he said he was going to Denali but he changed his mind at the last minute. I just didn't see, I've been… a little distracted." Her words pour out in a rush that would undoubtably be too fast for human ears to absorb. Standing there in a dressing gown that's barely held together by its loosely tied sash and Jasper, who followed her down the stairs, standing behind her in just his boxers I can clearly see just what has had her so distracted. Jeez is there anyone in this house not at it now?

I open my mouth to ask her what she's talking about but am stopped by the scent that hits me, no its more than simply a scent, I can sense him behind me. I spin on the spot, a snarl ripping from my mouth as I turn. "You!"

Edward stands in the front doorway, his expression no more welcoming than my own. His growling accusation fills the open-plan living space. "Alice! You didn't tell me _she_ was here."

"I don't think you actually asked," she replies in a small voice but failing to sound at all apologetic.

"I'm going to kill you," Edward snarls with a venomous glare, not making it entirely clear which one of us his threat is directed at.

Then several things happen at once.

Jasper is suddenly stood in front of both Alice and I, placing himself in a protective position blocking us from Edward. At the same time Edward closes the distance between our little group and himself, the two of them then facing off snarling their bodies coiled and tensed ready to attack. Emmett is across the room in an instant putting himself directly between the two of them and I hear Rosalie's concerned exclaim of "Emmett!" before she rushes to join him.

I myself drop into a stance that mirrors that of Edward and Jasper's. If Jasper doesn't deal with him then I most certainly will.

"Jasper, please it's okay." Alice's gentle plea is the only remaining calm amidst the increasing friction as she places a reassuring hand on Jasper's arm.

And then the strangest thing happens. Before my eyes, its as if all the hostility in the room dissipates, I can practically see the tension melting from their bodies but I have absolutely no idea why.

Emmett is suddenly patting Edward on the back telling him it's good to see him again, and Edward and Jasper are shaking hands as Alice introduces them properly. Even Rosalie is hugging Edward telling him she's missed him.

"What the fuck is going on?" I mutter to no one in particular. I seriously don't understand their crazy mood swings, everyone is welcoming the prodigal son home with open arms whilst I still want to rip his head from his shoulders.

Edward catches me staring and sends me one of his disarmingly glorious smiles but I just glare back at him and he honestly has the nerve to look surprised by my continued animosity.

He's not the only one, Jasper is also studying me with curiosity. "I can still feel your anger," he states sounding perplexed. "The intensity of your hate for him borders on obsessional." I bristle at Jasper's claim that I'm obsessed with Edward, but in a way he is right. Not a day has gone by since he turned me that I haven't thought about the ways in which I'd like to kill and dismember Edward Masen.

"Tell me, exactly how should I feel?" I snap back sarcastically.

"Honestly? I was aiming for a warm sense of forgiveness and reconciliation." He states.

"What?" I say shaking my head in confusion.

Alice speaks up at that moment. "I guess this is the point where I should explain Jasper's ability." Everyone turns to look at her as she continues. "Jasper has the ability to sway people's moods."

"Sway?" Edward asks suspiciously.

"Actually, its more like complete manipulation of a person's emotions." Jasper comments rather matter of factly, like it's no big deal.

"What exactly did you do to us?" Edward presses his tone indicating that his _warm sense of forgiveness and reconciliation_ is beginning to fade.

"I could feel how distressed Alice was by the escalating situation in the room, so I just helped you all to exercise a little restraint and remember that you're family."

"Ugh! So you mean I hugged Edward and I'm not actually pleased to see him!" Rosalie gives a grunt of disgust that's accompanied by Emmett's snort of laughter but Jasper isn't listening to them he is still regarding me with intense interest.

"But curiously, you weren't affected by my ability were you Isabella?"

I don't respond before Edward adds, "I can't hear her thoughts either."

"I knew it! You do have an ability!" Alice almost shrieks with excitement.

"No! I'm not like you," I say quick to contradict her. "My father had the same immunity. This is a hunter thing it has absolutely nothing to do with being a vampire."

"Even so this is very exciting," Alice says seemingly unperturbed by anything I've just said, "This is it! I know it! This is the reason I've seen you with us in the battle. It's how you're going to help us win."

I'm about to tell her where she can stick her premonitions perhaps if she hadn't seen me in one of them Edward would never have changed me in the first place but I'm stopped by Emmett who, unlike everyone else, still seems to be riding the happy high of Jasper's mood manipulation.

"So," he says slapping one hand on each of Jasper and Edward's shoulders, "are you going to show Edward here how to fight? Because I for one was looking forward to kicking his ass and since you put an end to all the fun a moment ago it's only fair you give me another excuse to do it."

Somehow within a short amount of time the guys go from wanting to rip each others throats out to BFFs discussing a testosterone fuelled day of wrestling and fighting practice. I watch as Jasper runs through the same techniques for fighting new-borns as he demonstrated to us only days ago. Emmett is more than eager to act as Edward's sparring partner whilst Jasper points out where they are going wrong and strategies for improvement. I don't take my eyes off of Edward for a moment. He's quick I'll give him that. Whilst he doesn't have the bulk of Emmett, Edward easily judges what move his opponent is about to make and then both dodge and counter it. Time and again he uses Emmett's own weight against him to throw him to the floor.

Eventually Emmett gets bored with losing and throws in the towel. "You're a cheat," he huffs, "it's not a fair match fighting someone who knows every move I'm about to make as soon as I think it. Let's see how well you fair against someone whose mind you can't read. What you say Swan? Think you can take him?"

"I think I've already proved that I can." I reply smugly shooting Masen a snide smile.

Emmett laughs, "You going to take that lying down bro or are you ready for a rematch."

"Whenever you're ready," Edward responds coolly.

I've been itching for this the whole time they've been fighting. I can't wait to enjoy the on Edward's face just before I rip his head off again. All the years I've spent learning to fight, every sparring session with Jake where I've endured him kicking my ass, all those hunts for other vampires and studying the best ways to kill them in my father's journal feel like they have all been solely for this purpose. Just so I can relish killing Edward Masen in front of his friends and family.

I take my place on the opposite side of the lawn every muscle in my body instinctively twitching, primed to launch at him. I'm hyper-aware of every move he makes right down to the slightest change in his expression. His eyes are dark and murderous studying me in exactly the same way, every last trace of Jasper's good mood enhancement gone. It's clear that Edward wants pay back for what I did to him.

Hah! What I did to him! It was nothing compared to what he did to me. Edward Masen took my life away and I intended to spend the rest of eternity making him pay for it.

The ferocity of the snarl that rips from me almost takes me by surprise as I charge towards him. I feint an attack to his right and he takes a slight sidestep in reaction but at the last second I collide with his left shoulder. My body connecting with his with every ounce of hatred I contain as I tackle him to the ground.

I snap and snarl at him like a wild dog, trying to reach the skin of his neck but his knee connects with my side, simultaneously rolling us over and freeing himself from beneath me before I get the chance to sink my teeth in. He is on his feet in an instant, not waiting for me to attack again but instead taking the offensive himself. I find myself thrown backwards towards the tree line, landing in a crouch on my feet and before I have time to straightened up he is upon me again.

He might not have Emmett's strength but Edward's speed allows him to match my pace as we block each other's blows. We are both snarling at each other now, his teeth bared at me and I don't doubt for a second that he'll use them on me if he gets the chance.

With my fingers clawed, I manage to catch him with a good swipe and his shirt is left in tatters. Another one and his chest shows the tracks of my nails.

I hear him hiss "bitch" before his elbow smacks into my chest. I crash into a tree behind me and I hear the loud crack of its trunk on impact. We are out of sight of the others now but we have no intention of stopping, this was never about a simple training session for either of us.

"I should have just fucking left you for dead in that alley way when I had the chance, I should never have saved you." He says bitterly.

"You didn't save me! You cursed me you bastard! You've damned me to this life, I wish you had let that other leech kill me." I yell angrily pushing off from the tree, felling it completely with the force and flying at him.

"It's not too late to rectify that." Edward snarls. He manages to grab hold of me, spinning me about, his teeth aim for my neck but he doesn't manage to get a sufficient grip on me and I jerk out of his hands leaving what was left of my t-shirt behind in his tight fists.

"I hate you!" I hurl at him. "I'm never going to stop punishing you for what you've done to me."

Fists, knees, feet, elbows all connect again and again in a whirling dance, neither of us ever gaining the complete purchase we need to dismember the other or the right angle to sink our teeth in.

I'm aware I'm getting careless, struggling to rein my anger in. Jake used to yell at me for losing concentration and letting my temper get the better of me when we practiced martial arts together but I've never been able to help the way my emotions tend to rule my head.

Edward makes another grab for me, he misses but ends up with my bra dangling in one hand. He smirks at me with a maddeningly smug expression and I snap. I charge at him, centre on, my head down making it all too easy for him to get both his arms round me. The next thing I know he slams me up against a rocky outcrop and his teeth are at my neck.

His body has me pinned to the rock face, his bare chest pressed hard against mine. Our chests rising and falling in unison from exertion and anger.

With a pained growl he pulls back, his teeth no longer at my neck and for a fraction of a second he stares at me with dark intensity before his lips crash against mine.

I know could escape, I could easily push him away but now that's the last thing I want to do. All the rage and fury of our fight is transferred to the kiss. We're still battling for dominance but it's a new aggressive passion that drives us.

My fingers still claw at his shoulders but now I'm clinging to him. His hands are still full of force as he grabs my hips pulling my centre to his, but his deep guttural growl is not one of anger when in response I press back against where I can feel his hardened arousal straining between us.

An aching want in me eclipses my original desire to maim him. This is a hunger far greater than the burning thirst I live with daily. This is one I cannot resist and which I need to satisfy.

Our hands and lips move with a deepening intensity, a growing desperation evident in our actions. My fingers find his belt but in my urgency the metal and leather gives way in my hands and in frustration I rip open his trousers. "Careful" he mutters as he rids himself of what's left of his clothes. Then with one swift move my jeans are torn from my legs.

I gasp not from the action, as he easily shreds my underwear, but from the dark hunger in his eyes as he does it. I capture his mouth again, trapping his bottom lip between my teeth and prompting a sharp hiss from him as I do so. His hands dig into the flesh of my ass squeezing me and moulding me to his shape before lifting me so that I can wrap my legs about him.

I can feel him hard between my legs and I rock against him in search of relief from the throbbing ache that is consuming me.

"This doesn't change anything I still hate you." I warn with heavy breath.

"I know," is his response through gritted teeth, "and you'll probably hate me even more after."

"I don't care," I tell him truthfully, "just shut up and fuck me already."

Lifting me slightly he positions himself and I feel him push in before stopping almost as if at some invisible barrier. I gasp at the sensation when he continues until he is sheathed fully within me. Edward Masen has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, his thick length is much more than adequate, but even so I don't understand why I feel quite so stretched and full. Although Edward had a definite edge on anyone else I've experienced in terms of length he isn't as unnaturally wide in girth as Jake. But yet I felt so tight, almost uncomfortably so.

I realise my face is screwed up in a grimace when Edward reaches with one hand to smooth the crease that has formed between my eyebrows.

"Give it a moment for your body to adjust." He soothes gently, continuing to explain when met with my frown of confusion. "You must have realised, when you changed, that the venom healed all the wounds ever inflicted on your human body either through battle, illness or otherwise. It erases all damage, all scars, except those caused by a vampire bite, and makes you whole again in every sense."

It takes me a second to understand what he is saying. "Are you…are you trying to tell me that I'm a virgin again." I splutter in utter disbelief.

"You were, up until a few seconds ago." He says slightly warily. "You really didn't know?"

Well, that's definite a mood killer! Bella Swan had slept with more men than she cared to remember and had long given up trying to keep track, but it seems Isabella the vampire was a born again virgin. I certainly hadn't seen that one coming. And now, with the chance to start over again, I'm giving myself to _him_ of all people.

"Of course I didn't know! Uggh…I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I'm loosing my virginity too _you_!" I say shaking my head with horrified disgust.

"I wouldn't have considered having sex with you otherwise," he comments coldly. "Do you really think I could face that dog's sloppy seconds any other way?"

"Did you really just say that to me? Whilst we're like this? Fuck I hate you!" I spit at him.

"That's more like the Bella of a few moments ago," he states with a humourless laugh, "for a moment I thought you were going to fall apart and go all emotional on me."

"Fuck you!" But he's right, a heated passion is burning in me again, it seems there's a very fine line between fighting and fucking for us.

"Do you want me to stop?" It's more of a challenge than an offer.

I could, I should say yes. I could try to justify the reason I'm not going to tell him to stop is that having gone this far already it would be pointless now but that's not the primary reason, as much as I hate to admit it, I want him.

"No, do you?" I state with determination countering his own challenge.

Abruptly he withdraws almost completely before angrily thrusting back into me and causing my back to slam with a resounding thud against the rock behind me.

_Fuck! _

The discomfort of a second ago is entirely gone. I no longer feel like I'm being over stretched, instead he fits me perfectly, almost as if he's made for me or vice versa. Like it couldn't get any better than this, he feels so fucking good. As he continues to drive into me harder and faster, spurred on by the noises that spill from my mouth, each thrust hits me in exactly the right way. I've had good sex before, fantastic on occasion, but not like this. Not _'__absolutely phenomenal, your dick has been built to find my g spot, I think I__'__m going to come after only a few seconds__'_ sex.

I know I'm moaning like an over the top porn star and there's a small part of my brain that registers how embarrassed I'll be about my display later, but there's nothing I can do to stop the words from tumbling out in one long partially incoherent mess. Demands for him to take me harder, faster, letting him know just how good it feels, crying out to god, I think I even thank him at one point but mainly its Edward's name and the cry of "yes oh fuck yes" that falls from my lips over and over again.

I dig my nails into his shoulders as I throw my head back and cry out as my climax courses through my body. I've hardly come down from my high when unbelievably I feel the same sensation building in me again.

This time using the leverage of my thighs wrapped tightly about him I work with him, driving him deeper inside me. One of my hands rakes through his hair before clutching a handful tightly in my fist whilst the nails of my other hand sink into his shoulder.

"Oh my god, Edward!" It's more of a scream of delightful agony this time as I quickly come undone again.

Edward's thrusts slow as he gives me time to recover, using the drop in tempo to explore my body. His hands sliding from my hips, leaving me to support my own weight with the grip of my legs, and working his way up to my breasts to stroke and caress them with firm hands. I watch his fascinated gaze as he cups and squeezes me before taking the hardened peak of my nipple between his fingers roughly. "Yes!" I moan tightening my hold on his hair.

At the sound of my exclaim he pauses to look up into my eyes. God, it's dangerous looking at him like this, he is so stunningly handsome. Not that I'd ever tell him, I wouldn't need to, I'm pretty sure the conceited arse already knows.

His lips take mine again, kissing me deeply as his fingers continue the heavenly torture of my nipples with an increasingly hard grasp. The movement of his hips speeds up again, becoming choppy and more erratic with each buck. Once again I feel the same familiar tightening expectation within in me.

_Oh my god, seriously again?_

I cry out his name in finality at the same time that his teeth sink into my neck and he comes with a muffled roar.

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_**Oops he bit her again!**_

_**Is this the beginning of a wonderful relationship or will they still hate each other as much as before? Hmm what do you think?**_


	15. Chapter Twelve

_**Okay just in case the rest of the story hasn't been totally beyond belief, this is the part where it just gets completely ridiculous (it seemed like good idea when I was half way through a bottle of wine). Anyway you have been warned!**_

_**Oh and I always forget to say but its pretty obviously I don't own these characters I've just fucked about with them for the purpose of this story so just presume that everyone will act out of character at some point or another.**_

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**Chapter Twelve**

Edward's POV

I slump forward letting my forehead fall to rest in the crook of her neck. Holy fuck! That was undoubtedly the most incredible sex of my entire existence.

It's not that I didn't know all about the phenomena, it had been explained to me in some detail many years ago, but I'd never actually experienced it with a woman before.

Once a person becomes a vampire their new physical and emotional setup is almost entirely unchangeable and any subsequent alterations that they do then undergo are permanent.

There are few things that can truly effect us, the forming of a lasting loving bond with a mate and of course the death of that mate are really the only things that can bend and break us emotionally. Physically a bite inflicted by another vampire will leave a permanent scar on our skin, with complete death only possible by fire.

The other physical change can occur when a vampire has sex for the first time. No matter what our human life has been before, we are all virgins when we first wake after our transformation.

Most of us however don't tend to stay that way for long. As sensory creatures of instinct our bodies are very much designed for the enjoyment of sex. I died before I had a chance to lose my human virginity but I'm told I didn't miss much. Apparently sex as a human pales in comparison with the mind blowing sensation that we vampires experience. There are some vampires of course that get pleasure from sex with humans, but personally I've always found the idea of it frustrating. Why would I want to have sex if it means constraining my movements, holding back from going as fast and as hard as I really want in fear of killing my partner? Although I suppose that's not an issue for so many of my kind, they're planning to feed on their partner anyway thus combining the two greatest pleasures in life. I know that for centuries before Tanya amended her diet, she and her sisters lured young men into their beds first enjoying their bodies and their blood.

Of course once we meet our mates for life, as Carlisle and Esme have done, we are content never to stray outside the relationship again but it can take centuries to discover our mate and vampires are not made to abstain from sex until we do.

Which is what makes the second attribute of our bodies so at odds with the first and seem like an unjust hand to be dealt.

When the virginal orifice is stretched and shaped during sex for the first time, the muscle memory of our body forever remembers the proportions of that first engaging member as being the ultimate form for pleasure giving perfection. You become the ideal partner for each other, two perfect pieces slotting together. Sex for the two of you will be beyond compare, no one and nothing else will ever be able to equal what for the two partners will be the most intense unsurpassable sex imaginable. Whilst coupling with others will still be immensely pleasurable, it will always feel as if sex is missing a certain something. What a cruel twist of fate it is to meet your mate, the one whose life you will be entwined with for eternity, only to discover that you will always be just a little too small or too large for your love to gain the highest level of satisfaction nor will you ever know the intensity of pleasure with her that her first partner achieved.

Unfortunately it seems I have found my perfect partner in a woman who hates me and whom I wouldn't be at all surprised tries to kill me again in the very near future. Especially considering what I have just done to her, but it was hardly planned.

Going into the fight I hadn't considered for even one moment that it would end as it did. When I flung her up against the cliff I had fully intended to give her a taste of her own medicine, if not severing her head completely then at least removing a good sized chunk. When I leaned in, preparing to bite, my intentions were derailed as her scent hit me. It was not the same as that first night. Her scent had undergone the most infinitesimal of alterations due to her transformation, it is entirely possible that the difference is only discernible to me because I was already so aware of her captivating fragrance. I still found it addictively intoxicating and as I breathed in the heady aroma of her arousal all thoughts of revenge left me, only one desire remained. I wanted her.

She made no move to stop me so wasn't it only fair of me to presume that she knew? But that isn't true, I'm not sure I even thought about it. I was so caught up in my own pursuit to fulfil my need that I didn't stop to consider that she didn't know the significance of our actions, or perhaps I just didn't care. After all I didn't exactly pause to explain the lasting consequences to her. But it's not like I didn't give her an out, is it? I didn't force her. And she certainly didn't seem to have any complaints during, in fact I'm pretty sure she thanked me at some point. Fuck! The sound of her moaning my name as she came is something I'm glad I didn't risk missing out on. I've never experienced sex like it before and, unfortunately, I probably never will again.

When the intensity of my orgasm ripped through me I'd felt like I was going to explode with the force. I've never been driven to bite anyone else during sex before but when I saw the scar on her neck I was possessed with the need to sink my teeth in and mark her again.

Even though I know she will unquestionably be incensed I can't help but feel a sick sense of pride in knowing that the brand of my teeth will be more prominently displayed on her skin now. It will be easily visible to other vampires and I like the idea of them somehow knowing it means I had her like this first and that she allowed me to bite her more than once.

The thought coupled with the memory of her screaming my name in ecstasy instantly has me hardening again and although I know her body will instinctively react to mine again I also know that I've leant against her inactive for too long. Although she hasn't pushed me away or berated me, an awkward silent inertia has fallen over us and it feels like both of us are waiting for the other to put an end to it.

Gently I help her unwrap her hold on me and lower her legs to the ground. Only when I take a step back from her do I look at her face.

"You bit me again," she accuses with incredulous shock but her voice doesn't hold the level of anger I expected.

"I assure you I didn't plan it, it was quite unintentional. I'm sorry if I hurt you," my apology for the most part truthful.

"Just…just don't ever do it again." She mutters avoiding my eyes, looking about the ground at what's left of her clothes instead. I expected her to be livid but instead she seems almost embarrassed. Is there a possibility that she liked it? I shake my head in answer to my own question and join in the distraction of looking for any clothes still intact enough to wear.

My shirt and jeans are ruined but the shoes and socks that I kicked off myself remain relatively unscathed and my boxers though a bit ripped are at least wearable.

Looking at Bella's clothes I realise everything has been destroyed. She was barefoot to begin with having kicked off the ridiculous heels, that I'm sure were Alice's choice, before we started fighting.

"Here take these," I say holding out the shorts.

She accepts them with a hesitant, "Thank you. Before adding reluctantly, "I guess we'd better go back to the house." She looks like she'd rather do anything but face the people we left on the lawn.

"Come on, I know a way to get back into the house without having to see anyone else."

We run in silence through the trees. I'm surprised that Bella lags behind, I thought she would still be keen to flaunt her superior new-born speed. When I cast a surreptitious eye back over my shoulder her gaze appears to be fixed to my naked backside. I hide my smug look of conceit as I slow my pace a fraction making it easier for her to enjoy the view.

I lead Bella back in the direction of the house, not to the front door or the rear lawn but to the side of the building where a group of tall pines stand. I signal for her to follow me as I scale the tallest of the bunch. It's too far from here to leap unaided but by climbing toward the very top of the tree I can force it to bend backwards by holding onto a lower branch, when I let go I can use the recoil to propel me forwards as I jump helping me to clear the distance. I go first demonstrating the technique landing silently on the sill outside my old room. Prising open the window without a sound I slip inside, turning back around just in time to witness her graceful landing. I hold out my hand to help her inside but she ignores my offer so I step aside to let her in, with an uncomfortable slighted feeling .

"You've done that a few times before haven't you?" She comments seemingly unaware or uncaring of her rebuff.

"It became a necessity whilst I was still living here. When returning from hunting, if I wanted to avoid my family's disapproving stares when they smelt the human blood on me, I'd enter the house this way instead.".

"How did you know this was my room?"

"This is my room," I correct her.

Alice! Somewhere in the house I can hear her laughing in her head.

"Oh right…well, I guess it's not like either of us are actually going to be sleeping in it," Bella shifts a little uneasily then indicates toward the en-suite door, "so… I'm going to…um… take a shower."

I nod even though she wasn't actually asking my permission. I listen to her turn on the shower, but from the way the water is beating on the stone tiles of the walk in shower it doesn't sound as if she's stepped in yet. I imagine her naked in front of the mirror, a scowl on her face as she inspects the mark on her neck.

I turn to the shelves of CDs that line one wall. Someone, presumably Bella, has messed up the careful order and I quickly reorganise them before turning to the stereo to find out what she's been listening to. I'm surprised by her choice when I discover a classical album, I had expected something more modern and heavier.

I finally hear the shower door click shut and the change in the pattern of the water hitting the tiles. I picture the water running over her body and quickly turn to the book shelf, where I had already spied a number of books out of place. I quickly rearrange them attempting to distract myself from the images of wet Bella.

"Edward" It's only a whisper, barely more than a breath and I wonder if she's hoping no one else in the house will hear, there's even the possibility that it wasn't intended for my ears.

It takes me only a fraction of a second of deliberation to decide to interpret it as an invitation and then only a fraction of a second more before the gloriously warm water of the shower is coursing over us as I press her up against the shower wall, my tongue licking the droplets from the wound on her neck.

"I've never had sex in a shower before." The spark in her eye seemingly offering up a dare. "I mean it's the sort of thing they always do in movies and books isn't it. I tried once but it was so slippery we lost our footing, the guy cracked his coccyx and I nearly knocked my front teeth out on the side of the bath."

"You're a vampire now. I assure you balance is not something you need to worry about. Besides I've got you." I say placing my hands firmly on her hips.

Then giving her what in the past has always worked as my best seductive smile, I drop to one knee before her, as if bowing before a queen. Her eyes are wide as I raise one of her legs over my shoulder, spreading her open to me. She grips my hair as if she's still worried about losing her balance and I tighten my grip in a show of supporting her, although there's really no chance of such a thing happening.

I can't contain the growl that rumbles through my chest as I take in her deep delicious smell . I force myself to go slow as I let my tongue taste her and another involuntary growl escapes me.

She gasps and writhes against me, her fists tightening in my hair as I repeat my action again and again. Circling her clit with increasing intensity, before running the length of her front to back, pausing to dip inside her to lap at her arousal, before repeating the journey all over again.

Like in the woods, her chorus of wanton moans cause me to loose a hold on all senses and thoughts other than how much I want her. I'm finding it hard not to lose complete control desperate to pound into her with unrestrained force but I'm aware my parents would not appreciate the damage to the shower wall.

"Oh god…Edward," Bella pants her voice strained. "I want…fuck… I need more."

I let my fingers fill her, driving them into her, as I continue to stimulate her clit with my mouth sucking greedily on the hard bud of nerve endings.

She cries out incoherently her tight walls contracting around my fingers as I continue to lave her with my tongue. She watches me with heavy lidded eyes as I retract my fingers and suck them clean before licking the last of the arousal from between her legs. Placing her foot back on the ground I stand up and bring the taste of her back to her mouth, where she accepts it readily.

"Your turn?" She questions softly, almost shyly, placing one hand on my chest directing me to lean back against the wall and then my queen is on her knees before me.

Wrapping her fist around my length, her tongue circles the tight skin of the head, tracing it's slit and licking the bead of moisture that has escaped. I groan and my hands find a firm hold in her hair. Her hand dropping to cup my balls as she licks the length of me, tracing the prominent veins and my head drops to the wall behind me, moaning in appreciation as her perfect rosebud lips wrap themselves around me.

Her name is a constant litany of gratitude and encouragement as her fingers stroke the sensitive skin between my legs and she continues to work me with her mouth taking me ever deeper.

I warn her when I'm close but she doesn't pull away, choosing to milk me dry to the last drop before releasing me and sitting back on her haunches to regard me with a strange look of wonder.

"You taste so good!" she utters in astonishment.

I can't help the smile that spreads across my lips or the chuckle that falls from them. "What were you expecting? I'm a vampire, of course I taste good. Everything about us is designed to draw in our unsuspecting prey our voice, our faces, our smell, so why would you expect our taste to be any different?"

"Do I…taste that …"

"Good? Absolutely!" I don't tell her that considering how intoxicating I found her smell I imagine she would have tasted that good to me when she was still a human.

She stares at me in slack jawed amazement. Not for the first time I'm frustrated that I don't know what she is thinking. She catches the plump flesh of her bottom lip between her teeth and all I can think about is how those lips felt against my hard smooth skin only moments ago. I see her gaze drop from my face to where I am already twitching and swelling back to full size. She licks her lips before I hear as well as see her swallow and she rushes to stand, mumbling something about us being clean now.

I follow her out of the shower but stay in the bathroom to towel off whilst she hurries into the bedroom.

I don't need to be able to read her mind to guess part of what she's thinking, because I'm certain its something very akin to the confusion I'm feeling right now. The woods were one thing we got consumed by the fierce passion of the fight, our anger morphing into lust, falling quickly from fighting to fucking in one easy step.

But what just happened in the shower was something very different. She invited me in and it wasn't angry heated sex, we took our time reverently pleasuring the other. I wanted to hear her, I wanted to know I could satisfy her.

Before today if you'd asked me what I was going to do if I ever saw Bella again my answer definitely wouldn't have been satisfy her. I would have told you I wanted nothing more than to make that bitch pay for what she'd done to me. After leaving me in a cabin to endure my body painfully inching its way back together I wanted to make her suffer.

But now I don't know how I feel. I mean of course the sex is amazing, it's the best I'm ever going to get unless I can find myself another virgin vampire, but that doesn't explain what just happened in the shower. Not that there are many reasons I can think of that would make me turn down a blow job from a hot wet naked woman, but there's absolutely no reason why it should have felt so much better than any other time I've been sucked off. But it did.

And more worryingly, something I've been trying to ignore since it happened, is the way it stung that she was so insulted to think that it would be me who would be her first in this life. I wanted it to be me and not just for arrogantly selfish reasons either.

The only explanation is that I must be getting soft, perhaps she did me some real mental damage when she ripped my head off. That girl is seriously bad news. She was a hunter, she gets off on killing vampires and she's tried to kill me at least twice now. I'm insane to even consider that what just happened in the bathroom meant anything more than me getting lucky with a girl with great tits and a talented mouth. And seriously it's not like that's unusual, I've never been exactly short of options. I've always had my pick of partners, no one I've wanted has turned me down yet and even if I were to run out of choices amongst the vampire population there's a whole world of humans who, very unwisely, seem to go out of their way to throw themselves at me. I could drive up to Denali now and Tanya and her sisters would be more than accommodating to the idea of a foursome.

So why don't I want to?

Bella is already clothed when I come out of the bathroom, I cross quickly to the dresser and pull out the first clothes I find, dressing quickly whilst keeping my back to her. I still manage to catch the sight of her in the mirror out the corner of my eye though.

She's wearing an outfit that screams Alice and it doesn't suit her at all. It doesn't fit with the Bella I first met and she looks unnatural in it. I should definitely take her shopping and let her choose her own clothes.

Whoa! Take her shopping? Where did that come from? When have I ever taken a girl shopping? Ordinarily I'd rather pull my own teeth than hang outside a changing room critiquing girls' outfits but instead I'm suddenly fantasising about watching her getting undressed. I wonder what else we could get up to in one of those tight little cubicles?

For crying out loud Cullen, pull yourself together. You're not playing house or taking her dress shopping, this is the same bitch that ripped your head off and left you for dead. You're letting yourself get distracted by a hot body and a tight…

"Can't believe Alice came in here and laid out clothes for me to wear whilst we were in the shower." Bella says wrinkling her nose up in distressed disgust. "I mean that's beyond creepy right? Do you… do you think she heard us."

I look at her in disbelief, the noise we were making Alice could probably hear us in the next state.

"Oh right of course, freaky superpower vampire hearing. Sometimes I forget…" She falls silent and for the umpteenth time I wish I knew what she was thinking. "I suppose," she says aiming for a brighter tone but failing, "that she saw this" she waves her hand between us, "coming any way."

Just as long as Alice didn't see me coming, that _is_ beyond creepy.

"I guess we should…um…go downstairs?" Bella suggests whilst looking like she'd rather do anything but. I have no more desire to face the rest of the household and their knowing looks than her. I wonder when the last time Bella ate was and whether like me a good bout of sex has built up a thirst.

"I know this great little range not far from here that serves a mean mountain lion." I offer with a smart-arse grin.

Her lips twitch but she doesn't allow herself to smile, just nodding in response instead. I gesture towards the window in a ladies first fashion. She stops half in half out to look back at me.

"This _still_ doesn't change anything," she reiterates firmly. "This doesn't mean we're friends or anything."

* * *

**I hope I didn't lose the few of you that are actually reading this with the weirdness of this vision of how vampires' bodies are altered when they losing their virginity.**

**Sex between Bella and Edward is obviously going to be the best it can get, but could there be the hint of something more than just physical attraction? What do you think?**


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